A Dunoon man who sexually groomed a child, buying her silence with money, food, data and allowing her to watch DSTV has been sentenced to life for repeatedly raping her.
National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) spokesperson Eric Ntabazalila said the State would not name the Dunoon man as his partner was the nanny of the victim which may indirectly identify the victim and expose her to secondary victimisation.
The Cape Town Regional Court handed down its judgment to the 69-year-old on Monday following his conviction for sexually grooming a minor for more than seven years.
He was sentenced to six years direct imprisonment for sexual grooming and life imprisonment for the rape.
Ntabazalila said the court further ordered that his name be entered into the National Register for Sex Offenders, the National Child Protection Register as it found him unsuitable to work with children and that he was unfit to possess a firearm.
Ntabazalila added: “This is the fifth case and sentencing of men convicted for committing sexual crimes against children in October alone. It is the third life imprisonment imposed by courts for such crimes and a second life imprisonment imposed by the Cape Town Regional Court in less than a week. In the same month, there were two femicide cases finalised where the accused were sentenced to life imprisonment and 23 years of direct imprisonment.”
Western Cape Director of Public Prosecutions Nicolette Bell welcomed the sentence and the efforts from law enforcement including the prosecution teams. During the trial, sexual offences prosecutor Ruwayda Badrudeen told the court that from 2012 until 2014, the 69-year-old man's partner was the child’s nanny.
“The child victim would at times sleep over at the accused and his partner’s place. The accused was also close to the family of the victim and a fellow church member. The rape incidents started when she was 5 years old and continued until she was 12 years old.
He would groom the child victim by giving her money for school, giving her food, buying her data, and allowing her to watch DSTV. While she was watching television, he would abuse her sexually,” said Badrudeen.
The court further heard that the man was not a first time offender, as he was convicted and sentenced to five years direct imprisonment wholly suspended five years for a sexual assault committed in March 2016.
He continued with the rapes, until his arrest for this case in 2020.
In a compiled victim impact statement the girl, now a teenager, revealed how she used to watch a television programme on virginity but after her rapes, she hated herself and her body as she felt she was no longer like the girls who were shown on the TV show.
She reported that the only thing that helped her to move forward was that she didn’t hold any grudges against him and wanted to find peace.
Gender-Based Violence (GBV) activist Reverend June Dolley-Major said when someone gets released on parole and re-offends they should get more than life imprisonment.
“Such perpetrators should be declared as dangerous criminals. We have too many re-offenders, it's like they intentionally behave well inside prisons so that they get out on parole. Then they commit the same offences. The 69-year-old is a habitual and dangerous criminal who has affected someone's life,” said Dolley-Major”.
Cape Times