A man who raped and murdered a teenage girl he was tasked to look after has been sentenced to two terms of life imprisonment by the Nquthu Regional Court.

The 24-year-old volunteered to look after the 15-year-old girl after her cousin and the cousin’s boyfriend left their home in the Mxangala area on October 29, 2022, to attend a night vigil.

The man had already been scolded by the cousin for ‘proposing love’ to the teenager, but he was nevertheless left with the girl in a rondavel.

When the cousin and her boyfriend returned home in the early hours of the morning, they found the girl dead outside the rondavel.

The girl’s father and the local induna were alerted, and the man was arrested shortly afterwards.

During the trial, Prosecutor Mphakamiseni Joel Justice Mdlalose led the evidence of the grandmother and cousin of the deceased, as well as the findings of the post-mortem. Mdlalose also told the court that the accused had deprived the complainant’s family by taking her life, as the family had hopes of her getting a good job and uplifting them.

The accused received two life sentences – one for the murder and one for the rape.

He was also declared unfit to possess a firearm and the court ordered that his name be added into the National Register for Sex Offenders.

“The NPA hopes that sentences of this nature serve as a deterrent to like-minded individuals,” said NPA regional spokesperson Natasha Ramkisson-Kara.

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