JABULANI Freeman Mkhize (49) was handed imprisonment for life for the rape of Isobel June Wallis (81) in the Port Shepstone Regional Court on Monday last week.
Magistrate Nonesi Dlamini further gave Mkhize five years for robbery and 15 years for her murder. The sentences will run concurrently.
Mkhize, who is from Murchison, pleaded not guilty, while his co-accused Mbongeni Abednego Maphumulo from Gamalakhe, pleaded guilty six months after Mrs Wallis’s death.
He received life imprisonment for the rape, 10 years for culpable homicide and five for robbery with aggravating circumstances,
Mrs Wallis was found dead in the bush near Saints’ Walk in June 2010. She was walking her dog on the pedestrian walk when she was approached for a cigarette.
Regional court prosecutor, Sharmilla Chinnasamy said Mrs Wallis was first slapped, and when she fell to the ground, was tied up and driven into the dense bush.
“The accused removed his shoelace from his boot to restrain her, and from the post-mortem report, she must have fought for her life, as she even had twigs in her hands.”
Mrs Chinnasamy said it was an undignified ordeal that Mrs Wallis went through. “She had her panties stuffed into her mouth in an effort to restrain her, and fabric tied over her to further restrain her,” she said.
She said Mrs Wallis’s watch and necklace was sold for very little and alcohol bought with it. “What motive or gain did they get from committing this offence?” she said.
“She was defenceless, they could have left her to live her life, but no, she was raped and killed.”
Before handing down the sentence, Magistrate Dlamini described the nature of the crime as a ‘gruesome attack’.
She described the rape as inhuman and degrading.
Magistrate Dlamini said that women of this age should be respected and not treated as rubbish and killed or raped.
