Cape Town - The Western Cape High Court has dismissed an appeal from a man who was convicted for the rape of his 9-year-old stepdaughter.
The accused was sentenced to 26 years’ imprisonment in the Wynberg Magistrate’s Court in July 2019 on two counts of rape and attempted rape.
He married the child’s mother in 2011, and thereafter they moved into a one-bedroom flat. The child slept in the same bedroom as the couple and it was proved in court he would rape the girl while her mother was working night shift.
The magistrate’s court found the State had proven beyond a reasonable doubt that during October and November 2014, and on two separate occasions, the man raped and tried to rape his stepdaughter. He pleaded not guilty to both counts and exercised his right to decline a plea explanation.
High Court Judge Judith Cloete, in her judgment, made mention of the duration of the matter which ran for three years, an indication of how long these matters usually take in court.
“This is indeed most regrettable and serves to highlight the very real challenges faced by judicial officers in dispensing swift justice in the current system. It also impacts on the quality of testimony, since recall of detail fades over time, and this makes the job of a judicial officer even more difficult, particularly where one is dealing with child witnesses,” the judge said.
The girl was 11 at the time of her testimony and her versions given had some contradictions, but the judge found the details of her rape did not alter. Furthermore, Judge Cloete found the man’s version amounted to a denial of his actions.
Beyond the testimony of the girl, the court relied upon evidence from Dr Ashima Narula from the Thuthuzela Care Centre for victim support, the testimony of her friend whom she first reported the incidents to, and that of Warrant Officer Luthando Tiya. In his affidavit Tiya came to the conclusion the man’s DNA was found on the victim’s bedding.
The DNA evidence, although excluded from the magistrate’s decision, was used by Judge Cloete as an independent source of evidence in support of the victim’s version.
His appeal on the rape conviction was dismissed, but after consideration of evidence adduced with regard to attempted rape, the judge upheld his appeal.
His conviction was therefore amended to attempted sexual assault and his sentence amended to eight years to run concurrently with his sentence of 22 years’ imprisonment for rape.