Kimberley - A Kimberley father, who has been found guilty of assaulting his three-month-old son, resulting in the child being mentally disabled, as well as raping his 11-year-old stepdaughter, leaving her pregnant, is expected to be sentenced in the Kimberley Magistrate’s Court next week.
Pre-sentencing proceeding were on Friday concluded in the case against the 33-year-old man from Phutanang, who was found guilty of two charges of rape and one of assault with the intent to do grievous bodily harm following the crimes he committed against his son and stepdaughter.
The State on Friday called for the prescribed minimum sentence (life imprisonment for rape and ten years imprisonment for assault GBH against a child) to be imposed.
The State prosecutor described how the man’s son, who sustained extensive head injuries when he was assaulted by his father with rocks/bricks, and contracted meningitis after undergoing brain surgery, is now, at the age of five, still unable to walk or talk.
She added that the fact that the accused now blamed the meningitis for his child’s current condition was “despicable”.
The State prosecutor went on the say that the man also raped his 11-year-old stepdaughter twice at her home while her mother was at work.
These rapes resulted in the girl falling pregnant and having to undergo an abortion.
She pointed out that the girl was not even at the age puberty when the rapes took place.
“A child her age should still be playing with friends and not having to undergo an abortion,” she said.
Referring to victim impact reports compiled by social workers, she said that the girl was negatively impacted by the crimes, with the abortion resulting in physical pain as well as emotional trauma.
The reports stated that the girl suffered trauma so bad that she had “sleepless nights, was in a state of shock and struggled to form relationships with males”. She also had suicidal tendencies, and did not want to be seen in public.
The girl apparently indicated that she was not willing to forgive her stepfather and wanted to see him behind bars.
The girl’s mother was also left emotionally scarred, displaying feelings of guilt and failure as she “could not protect her children” against the accused.
While the State has called for the minimum prescribed sentence to be imposed during next week’s expected sentencing, the man’s legal representative has called on Magistrate Memory Qomoyi to deviate and impose a lesser sentence with regard to the assault charge, after stating that the rock that hit the child on the head was actually meant for the mother, and in fact was a case of “dolus indirectus”.
Qomoyi is expected to hand down sentence next week.