MOSSEL BAYS NEWS - A 62-year-old Mossel Bay man is set to spend the next 20 years behind bars for the 2022 rape of his step-granddaughter when she was just five years old.
The Mossel Bay Regional Court handed the sentence down on Monday morning, 26 January. It had found the man, who shall not be named to protect the identity of the now eight-year-old victim, guilty on 3 November.
The court had heard that the perpetrator had been living with the girl and her mother (his stepdaughter) at the time of the incident and that his wife had died a week before the rape. He had had a close relationship with the victim and a bond of trust had formed between them.
The court also heard that the perpetrator had been convicted of a rape in 1995, for which he was sentenced to three years' imprisonment, two of which was suspended for five years. The sentence was then converted to correctional supervision.
The minimum prescribed sentence for a person who has been found guilty of raping a minor is life imprisonment (25 years), however, the magistrate in this matter, Jerome Koeries, said there were substantial and compelling circumstances surrounding the case to warrant a deviation.
Some of these circumstances, which were submitted to the court by the convicted man's attorney, included that he was 62, that his wife had died a week prior to the incident, that he had no family support, that he had been behind bars for three and a half years while awaiting the finalisation of the case, and that there was no victim impact statement.
The State argued that these circumstances were not compelling enough to deviate from life imprisonment.
While handing down the sentence, Koeries said it was no easy task to make a decision on the sentencing and that, after having considered all the facts, he found that while the circumstances the defence submitted were not compelling individually, when they were looked at cumulatively, they were both substantial and compelling.
Koeries said the deviation from a life sentence should not detract from the seriousness of the matter and that the convicted man should receive a lengthy custodial sentence. He added that should the sentenced man become eligible for parole, the victim's family would be informed, and they would be allowed to make representations to the parole board.
The convicted child rapist will now also have his name on the national sex offenders' register and the child protection register. He has been declared unfit to work with children or possess a firearm.
‘We bring you the latest Garden Route, Hessequa, Karoo news’
