Bethulie, Free State - A Free State man has been jailed for 10 years for raping a girl at knifepoint while she was on her way home from a Christmas party in 2010, police said on Thursday.
The Bethulie Regional Court ordered that the sentence run concurrently with the three-year sentence of imprisonment Jonas Shebe, 19, was already serving for housebreaking and theft, said Sergeant Ikobeng Hlubi.
He had also already received a five-year suspended sentence for raping a 14-year-old girl at knifepoint in the Maphodi informal settlement, in Springfontein, in the Free State three years ago.
Hlubi said police records showed that he threatened to kill the girl if she told anyone, but she spoke out, leading to his arrest and conviction.
He was sentenced to five years' imprisonment, but because he was a minor, the sentence was suspended in its entirety on condition he not commit the same crime again.
He was arrested on Christmas Day 2010 for raping the 18-year-old girl.
It was not known whether the suspended sentence would run concurrently with the other sentences. - Sapa