Durban - A 24-year-old man who raped a female minor half his age, has been jailed for life.
The man was convicted in the the Scottburgh Regional Court this week.
According to the National Prosecuting Authority, the 12-year-old victim was raped on two occasions in July 2020 in the Amahlongwa area near Umkomaas, on the KZN South Coast.
NPA spokesperson Natasha Kara said the man and the child knew each other as they lived in the same area.
“On the evening of the incident, she was playing outside her house when he called her under the pretence of sending her to the spaza shop.
“Once she was with him, he took her to a nearby rondavel and raped her twice, only releasing her when he heard her sister calling her name. He fled the scene and was arrested a few weeks later,” she said.
Kara said the child went home and told her family and they notified the police.
“She was taken to the Thuthuzela Care Centre at Prince Mshiyeni Hospital where she received the necessary services and psycho-social support to deal with her trauma,” she said.
In court, Regional Court Prosecutor Akhile Gcume led the testimonies of the child and her mother as well as medical evidence.
“In aggravation of sentence, Gcume told the court that rape is a nationwide scourge at present and the court has a responsibility to sentence the man in a way that will deter others from committing such an offence. The man was known to the complainant and he took advantage of that and her vulnerability due to her tender age,” concluded Kara.
In a separate incident, a Northdale Pietermaritzburg man was jailed to life for raping his stepdaughter while her mother was at work.
The victim, who was 13-years-old at the time, confided in her cousin and the man was arrested.
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