THE Benoni, South Africa, regional court on Friday sentenced a 36-year-old man from Etwatwa to life imprisonment for the rape of a five-year-old girl in 2019.
The magistrate also ordered that the man’s name be added to the National Register for Sexual Offenders. The man, who cannot be named to protect the victim’s identity, was staying in the same yard as the victim at a shack behind her house after the mother of the minor offered him a place to stay when he was homeless, National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Lumka Mahanjana said.
On June 2 2019, when the mother was not at home, the man called the girl and her six-year-old cousin to his shack. ‘When the two minors got to the shack, he asked them to lie on top of the bed, but the six-year-old refused and stood at the door.
The man then proceeded to undress and rape the five-year-old in the presence of her cousin,” Mahanjana said. The cousin reported the incident when the mother arrived home and the man was arrested on July 6 2019. He has been in custody since. —Timeslive
