Staff Reporter
The Botshabelo Regional Court has sentenced a 40-year-old man after he pleaded guilty to raping a four-year-old girl in September last year.
Magistrate Matshediso Khuduga on Monday sentenced Thabo William Mokoale to life imprisonment for raping the child on September 26, 2020.
National Prosecuting Authority regional spokesperson Phaladi Shuping said in a statement the complainant was playing on the street with other children when Mokoale sent her to a nearby shop.
“Mokoale, who is a neighbour to the complainant, locked the complainant in his bedroom on her return from the shop with the items she was sent to buy and raped her,” said Shuping.
The family of the complainant and community members searched for her throughout the night not aware that Mokoale had locked her in his bedroom.
Mokoale only allowed the complainant to go home the following day in the morning.
“The complainant told her parents what had happened and the matter was reported to the police. Mokoale was arrested on 27 September 2020,” he added.
In aggravation of sentence, state prosecutor Patrick Koloane submitted a victim impact statement in which the mother of the complainant said that the complainant no longer plays with other children and she has become violent because the teachers have reported to her that she is fighting other learners at school.
Koloane further said that even though Mokoale pleaded guilty and saved the complainant from secondary traumatisation of having to testify in court, the offence he pleaded guilty to is serious and, therefore, the court should impose a sentence as per the minimum prescribed sentence law because he failed to adduce any substantial and compelling circumstances for the imposition of a lesser sentence.
“The accused was interested in only one thing, which is to satisfy his own desire at the expense of a four-year-old child who knew nothing about sexual encounter. Our society expects the court to impose harsh punishment on perpetrators of such heinous crimes,” Koloane told the court.
Magistrate Khuduga sentenced Mokoale to life imprisonment and ordered that his name be included in the National Register for Sex Offenders.
She further declared him unfit to possess a firearm.