Durban - More than five years after a pupil was raped while walking home from school in the Osizweni area, the Madadeni Regional Court in Newcastle sentenced a 41-year-old man to life imprisonment.
National Prosecuting Authority(NPA) regional spokesperson Natasha Ramkisson-Kara the girl, who was 12 years old at the time, was raped in 2018 and lived with her guardian who she referred to as her mother.
“The man who was unknown to her had approached her on a few occasions when she was walking in the neighbourhood. She reported all these encounters to her mother when she got home.
“On the day of the incident she was walking back from school when she met him once again; this time he pulled her into a vacant property and raped her.”
According to Ramkisson-Kara, the girl wrote down what had happened to her in the form of a letter to her mother.
She said the man was then arrested after he was positively identified in an identity parade and the girl was taken to the Madadeni Thuthuzela Care Centre, where she received medical and psycho-social assistance.
In court, Regional Court Prosecutor Dan Motha led the testimonies of the girl, her mother, the doctor who did the medical examination, and the police official who conducted the identity parade.
Motha also handed in a Victim Impact Statement compiled by the girl and facilitated by Court Preparation Officer Masandi Mdiya.
“In her statement, the girl said that she is unable to sleep at night because she constantly thinks about the incident. She said that she would never trust a male person again as the man had ruined her life.”
Ramkisson-Kara said the man was sentenced accordingly.
She said the court declared him unfit to possess a firearm and ruled that he was unsuitable to work with children.
“The NPA welcomes this successful prosecution. We commend the work done by both the prosecution and the investigation team.”