MBOMBELA – A serial rapist has been sentenced to a 100 years imprisonment . This occurred in the Nelspruit Regional court on Monday when Hendry Shai (30) of Shabalala Trust near Hazyview was found guilty of raping and robbing five women.
Magistrate Mr Willie Wilkens sentenced Shai to four life sentences for rape and three 15 year sentences for armed robbery and six years for theft.
Wilkins said Shai had operated like a predator around the shops in Hazyview .
“You were lurking like a lion around the shopping centre at Hazyview.”
He said he would coax his victims with false promises of employment and in the same modus operandi would then take them through shortcut paths in the bush where he then would attack them.
“You knew meticulously where in the bush you would rape them as you raped all the victims in the same spot every time.”
After raping the women by either gunpoint or knife, Shai would then rob them of their possessions and phones.
His victims had all being in their twenties when he had attacked them. His spree of rapes were during 2010 and 2011.
State Prosecutor Ms Magda Marais said three of the rapes had occurred in one month.
Shai was eventually arrested and kept in custody since May 2011.
