A Gauteng man has been sentenced to life imprisonment in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court for raping his seven-year-old cousin.
The 27-year-old man from Atteridgeville cannot be named to protect the victim from secondary trauma.
The court heard it was not the first time that the man had raped the young girl.
Previously, he was sentenced to five years imprisonment for raping the girl who was five years old at the time and her 10-year-old sister in 2017.
After he only served two years of his sentence, he was released on parole.
After his release, on April 30, 2019, the court heard the man and the little girl were at their family home in Atteridgeville with the rest of their family preparing for the funeral of the child’s mother.
The court heard that during the day, while the family was conducting a home service, the girl was asked to fetch water from a tap in the yard. The man snatched her and dragged her into his room, where he raped her.
The girl immediately reported the incident and the matter was reported to police. On May 2, 2019, he handed himself over to Atteridgeville police station and has been in custody since.
During the trial, he pleaded not guilty to the charges, however, the State was to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt.
During sentencing proceedings, the man asked the court to consider the five years he spent in prison awaiting the finalisation of the trial when imposing its sentence.
State Advocate Dru Ramsamy argued that the court impose a life sentence and argued the man’s previous conviction did not deter him from committing the same offence to the same child.
“The fact that the man committed the same offence while out on parole shows his disregard for the law. He violated the child in a most gruesome way while mourning the passing of her mother. As an older cousin, he was supposed to protect the child but instead, he raped her,” Ramsamy submitted.
During sentencing, Magistrate Nosipho Gcawu said the man showed no remorse and he never learnt from the sentence of imprisonment he previously served for committing the same offence.
Gcawu further stated it was more heartless that the man violated the girl for the second time on the eve of her mother’s funeral who was reportedly murdered by her boyfriend.
The man was sentenced to life imprisonment and further ordered that his name be added to the National Register for Sexual Offenders and the National Children’s Register for him to not work with children. He was also declared unfit to possess a firearm.
IOL