Dad jailed for 7-year-old’s rape, murder

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Published May 14, 2014

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Mbombela - An Mpumalanga man was jailed for 15 years on Wednesday for raping, sodomising and killing his seven-year-old epileptic daughter.

The Nelspruit Circuit of the High Court in Pretoria sentenced Sunnyboy Phakimpi Mnisi, 32, to 15 years' imprisonment for murder and three years each for the two charges of rape, a Sapa correspondent reported.

Mnisi, from KaMhlushwa near Malalane, pleaded guilty to murder on Tuesday, but not guilty to the two rape charges.

Passing judgment, Justice Ebenhaezer Jordaan said Mnisi admitted he was sober when killing his daughter on August 16, 2012.

“He admitted to fetching Ayanda from his mother who lived in Boschfontein, about five kilometres away from his house in KaMhlushwa. He admitted he forcefully hit Ayanda's head against the floor and strangled her after she started having seizures. He said he ran away after he realised that she was dead,” Jordaan said.

He said during Mnisi's previous appearance in the same court he pleaded guilty to the murder and the two rape charges to Judge Nomsa Khumalo, but later denied the two rapes.

“The accused is found guilty on both the rape charges. Any act of non-consensual sexual penetration of a person, whether dead or alive, is rape,” Jordaan said.

“Such a person can be found guilty as if he performed sexual penetration with a live person.”

Jordaan granted defence lawyer Nico du Plessis leave to appeal against the two rape convictions.

Sapa

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