Shelly Beach man sentenced for rape of girl (16)
King said the girl, although encouraged by her friend at the time, was told not to report the matter.
Ross Porter (48) of Shelly Beach was recently sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment for the rape of a teenage girl on December 13, 2018.
The girl, who was 16 at the time, had attended her first sleepover, with her friend, when the incident happened.
When handing down sentencing, Acting Regional Magistrate Basil King said the young girl in this matter was very traumatised and vulnerable.
“She was plied with alcoholic beverages too, obviously to limit resistance as far as possible. What is more despicable is that a day earlier Porter had spoken to her mother and told her, her daughter would be safe.”
King said the girl, although encouraged by her friend at the time, was told not to report the matter.
“So she lived for two months almost with the issue bugging her constantly to the extent of infuriating her then boyfriend by her constant tearful state. This must have been an awful burden to bear,” he said.
King added that another factor to bear in mind too is that Porter at the time of the incident, was in a relationship with another woman. She was also carrying their unborn child.
State prosecutor Advocate Kanki Mosoetsa argued that no compelling and substantial circumstances exist in the matter warranting a departure from the prescribed sentence of life imprisonment.
He also pointed out that Porter was not ‘remorseful’ as he had told the court: “I wasn’t there, this did not happen.”
Porter was initially charged for two counts of rape. He pleaded not guilty to both counts on June 23, 2020.
The court found one of the girls to be an unreliable witness for many reasons, and Porter was found not guilty of the second charge of rape.
The case was investigated by Sergeant Beatus Cele of the Port Shepstone Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences Unit.
It was also established that in 2005, Porter, living in the UK at the time was convicted of possession of indecent images of children, contrary to section 160(1) of the Criminal Justice Act 1988.
When the hard drive of one his computers was examined, it was found that he had placed a large number of indecent images in the recycle bin, which he had then emptied.
Porter won an appeal, as the Appeal Court said that merely being in possession of the hard drive from which images had been deleted was not enough to put a person in possession of the images.
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