The Pretoria Magistrates’ Court has sentenced a 50-year-old man to three life terms for raping his 11-year-old stepdaughter on three separate occasions.
National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) spokesperson Lumka Mahanjana said the sentence court has ordered that the sentences should run concurrently.
“He was declared unfit to possess a firearm and the court ordered that his name be added to the National Register for Sexual Offenders,” said Mahanjana.
Mahanjana explained that the victim’s mother and the man were in a love relationship from 2013 until 2020. They were living together in the man’s house in Olievenhoutbosch.
The first incident happened in October 2018 when the mother was admitted in hospital to give birth, and she left her daughter with her partner.
“When the father returned from the hospital, he found the minor child in bed and then he forcefully removed her clothes, prevented her from screaming and proceeded to rape her.
“The second incident happened in July 2020 when the mother had gone to a rural village to visit her mother. The victim was left in the care of the stepfather, when he returned home drunk that night and proceeded to the room where the minor was sleeping and raped her. He then told her not to report her mother as she would be homeless and starve,” explained Mahanjana.
Mahanjana said the third violation happened in 2020 when the mother had broken up with the man and she left her children with him to run some errands.
“When the mother fetched the children later that day she did not report. However, on September 29, 2020, when the victim was bathing, the mother noticed flesh coming out of her private part. She asked what had happened, and after pressing her further, the child eventually told her what had happened,” she said.
Mahanjana said the matter was reported to the police and the man was arrested later that day.
In court, he pleaded not guilty to the charges and denied raping the child.
When handing down the sentence, the court said the man showed no remorse for his action and he raped a child who called him papa and continues to deny the offences.
sinenhlanhla.masilela@iol.co.za
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