High Court upholds rape, threat to kill sentences

Lebogang Mosikare | Thursday December 10, 2015 14:53

 

Justice Phadi Solomon ruled yesterday that the magistrate who sentenced Kgano was entitled to impose the sentence because the appellant was violent to his victim in the rape case.

The appellant was sentenced to 11 years for rape and a two-year suspended sentence for the threat to kill.

Regarding the threat to kill charge, Solomon said the complainant had heard Kgano say, “your family will buy an emergency coffin,” or words to that effect.

In addition, the victim’s subsequent actions of escaping through the window and immediately reporting to her neighbour, who corroborated the evidence, lent credence to the State’s case.

“I find no fault with the way the magistrate arrived at her decision,” Solomon said.

Kgano had argued that his conviction was not supported by evidence and that the State had not proved his guilt to the requisite standards.

He also argued that the sentences were harsh, saying the magistrate court had not taken his mitigating factors into consideration.

Kgano also argued that there were some inconsistencies among the testimonies of the state witnesses.

One of these, he said was that the rape complainant testified that she had been stabbed with a knife, whereas the doctor testified that he observed bruising and not wounds.

According to the court record, Kgano and the complainant were lovers from December 2010 until February 2011 when they broke up. On March 28, 2011, Kgano went to the complaint’s home at night and entered the house without knocking.

He told the complainant that he wanted to talk to her and when she refused, he manhandled her and told her that she was going to talk to him whether she liked it or not.

On April 1, 2011, the complainant returned from a nightclub in Selebi-Phikwe with a friend only to find Kgano waiting outside her house, in an ambush.

“The appellant held and dragged the complainant away as she had held onto her friend.

He dragged them both out of the yard. The appellant stabbed the friend who then stood aside and then he stabbed the complainant before dragging her to a hill.

 She was screaming for help and the appellant threatened to kill her if she did not shut up.

At the top of the hill he raped her and threatened to kill her if she did not comply,” said Solomon.

Solomon further stated that Kgano once more pulled the complainant to Botshabelo location where he raped her again in a vacant house.

The complainant then received a phone call from the police but she convinced Kgano that it was her relatives and she would not report him if he allowed her to go home.