A weeping Dutywa Nguquko has been sentenced to four years' imprisonment for sexually assaulting an 11-year-old girl he met at a drum majorette exhibition.
Judge Geraldine Borchers ordered in the Johannesburg High Court on Thursday that one year of the sentence be suspended for five years.
The accused escaped a 10-year prison sentence prescribed in terms of minimum sentencing laws because the judge found him not guilty of the more serious charge of rape.
The assault occurred at the Thokoza Stadium in 2004 after Nguquko met the complainant - who cannot be named because of her age - and her friends during the event.
The court heard on Thursday that Nguquko had sent the complainant to buy him a packet of chips, and after she came back empty-handed, he offered to take her to what he said was the right place to buy the chips.
Subsequently, "a sexual adventure" initiated by the girl ensued between the two, the lawyer representing Nguquko, Karen Cosyn, told the court. "It seems like it was a spontaneous thing," Cosyn told the court after consulting briefly with her client.
Earlier, Judge Borchers was scathing at some of the evidence that was allowed in the lower court, the Germiston magistrate's court, characterising some of the events there as a travesty of justice.
Among some of the mistakes committed during the investigation was the fact that the accused's DNA swab had not been allocated a crime kit number and there was no indication from the doctor who had performed the procedure that she had sealed it and given it a number.
As a result, the tests could not prove with certainty that the DNA was Nguquko's.
The judge noted that had it not been for a guilty plea entered into by Nguquko at the start of trial, it would have been the complainant's version against his.
Judge Borchers said the state could have done more in prosecuting its case. "It's a travesty of justice. I would have liked to have heard the accused's version as to why he wanted to plead guilty at some stage, but he wasn't asked. The obligation of the state was not fulfilled as it should have been. There was no corroboration of the evidence, and the evidence wasn't particularly criticised."
She found that the accused was 18 years old when he committed the crime and that "he was little more than a child himself".