Uncle Sentenced To 22 Years Imprisonment For Rape Of A 12-Year-Old Child
The Atteridgeville Magistrate’s Court, sentenced a 29-year-old man (Mr X), from Saulsville in Atteridgeville, Pretoria, to twenty-two years of direct imprisonment, for two counts of rape of a 12-year-old minor. The court ordered that his name be written in the National Register for Sexual Offenders and declared him unfit to possess a firearm. This is after he was convicted, by Magistrate Allen Cowan, on 25 May 2022. At the time of the incident, the child was staying with her grandmother, in Saulsville in the main house while Mr X who at the time was in a relationship with the victim’s aunt, stayed in the back rooms within the same yard.
In June 2019, in the evening when the child was closing the gate at the request of the grandmother. Mr X, saw her and dragged her to the outside toilet and raped her. In the morning, the child reported the matter to the grandmother, who told her to go to the clinic and school. When the minor got to school, she told her friend what had happened. The friend, together with the victim went back to the grandmother after school and told her what the victim had shared with her, but the grandmother chased the friend away. Two weeks later, when the victim was washing dishes in the kitchen, Mr X came in and sexually assaulted the child again.
In December, during the school holidays when the child was reunited with her mother, the mother noticed a behaviour change, upon enquiring the child informed the mother of what had happened. The mother reported the matter to the police, Mr. X was arrested on 08 January 2020, and has been in custody since, after the NPA successfully opposed bail. In court, Mr X did not plead guilty, to the charges preferred against him. The Court Preparation Officer, Kopano Motshwane, prepared the child using a PEACE method, to enable the child to stand trial and testify in court before, she testified using the intermediary services.
Prosecutor Paulina Mochaka asked the court to recall what the victim went through when imposing a sentence. Mr X was an uncle to the child but failed to protect her, instead, he saw her as a suitable candidate to satisfy himself sexually. Magistrate Cowan agreed with the state that the offence was gruesome, despicable and disgusting. Mr X preyed on the child and is still refusing to take responsibility for what he did, and the grandmother also did not protect the child, she did nothing and she too deserves to be in jail.
The 62-year-old, grandmother, of the child, was summoned to appear on 19 March 2021, facing a charge of failure to report the rape of a minor. The matter will appear on 20 July 2022, at Atteridgeville District Court for representation.
The NPA welcomes the sentence.
Issued by:
Lumka Mahanjana:
NPA Regional Spokesperson
Gauteng Division: Pretoria
073 002 0000