CAPE TOWN - A stepfather will serve three life sentences for the rapes of his minor stepdaughter after the Supreme Court of Appeal upheld an appeal by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) challenging a discounted sentence imposed by the Pretoria High Court.
The latter had granted an appeal upholding the man’s conviction, but setting aside the three life sentences imposed by the Mpumalanga Regional Court and replacing this with three 20-year sentences for each count of rape, to run concurrently.
Aggrieved by the decision, the DPP appealed against the order made in 2018.
In her judgment, acting judge Anna Kgoele said: “It bears mention that the sentences of life imprisonment imposed by the regional court in respect of the rape counts were in consequence of the finding that no substantial and compelling circumstances were present that could warrant a deviation from the prescribed minimum sentences of life, prescribed by the Criminal Law Amendment Act (CLAA).
“The high court, even though it did not find any reason to interfere with this finding by the regional court, including the concurrency of the sentences imposed, concluded that the sentence of life imprisonment was disproportionate to the offences of rape.”
The minor girl had started staying with her mother and stepfather during 2010 and it was her version that she was raped by her stepfather on numerous occasions during the periods November 2011, August 2012, and February 2015.
She was 12, 13, and 15 years old, respectively, at the time.
Cape Times