Mpumalanga teen gets 5 years for raping woman, 55, while on bail for similar offence
A 17-year-old was sentenced to five years' imprisonment by the KwaMhlanga Regional Court in Mpumalanga on Friday after he pleaded guilty to raping a 55-year-old woman in 2019.
Image: ANA file image.
According to National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) spokesperson Monica Nyuswa, the sentence emanates from an incident in October 2019.
“The victim was at home in KwaMhlanga with her husband when the accused arrived [at] their house. He assaulted them both with a knife and raped the complainant several times and was eventually arrested,” Nyuswa said.
“In aggravation of sentence, the regional court prosecutor, Bianca Harmse, convinced the court not to [treat] the accused as a juvenile, since he was not a first-time offender, and to impose a prison sentence as he committed the offence while he was out on bail, under the care of his guardian, for a similar offence he committed in Vaalbank.”
Harmse said that, if the accused was an adult at the time, the prescribed minimum sentence of life imprisonment would have applied.
The boy was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment and another five years suspended, on condition that he is not again convicted of a similar offence during the period of suspension.
He was declared unfit to possess a firearm and was found unsuitable to work with children.
“The NPA welcomes the conviction and sentence, hoping that it will send a strong message to young generation who commit similar offences,” Nyuswa said.
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