Pretoria man gets 22 years in jail for raping 12-year-old girl

The National Prosecuting Authority has welcomed the sentencing of a 29-year-old man who raped a 12-year-old girl. Picture: File

The National Prosecuting Authority has welcomed the sentencing of a 29-year-old man who raped a 12-year-old girl. Picture: File

Published Jul 15, 2022

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Pretoria – The Atteridgeville Magistrate’s Court has sentenced a 29-year-old man from Saulsville in Atteridgeville, Pretoria, to 22 years in prison after he was convicted for raping a 12-year-old girl.

The 29-year-old rapist’s identity is being withheld to protect the minor victim. The man is referred to as Mr X.

“The court ordered that his name be added to the National Register for Sexual Offenders and declared him unfit to possess a firearm. This is after he was convicted, by Magistrate Allen Cowan, on 25 May 2022,” said Gauteng National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) spokesperson Lumka Mahanjana.

“At the time of the incident, the child was staying with her grandmother in Saulsville in the main house while Mr X, who at the time was in a relationship with the victim’s aunt, stayed in the back rooms within the same yard.”

Mahanjana said in June 2019, when the child was closing the gate in the evening, Mr X dragged her to the outside toilet and raped her.

“In the morning, the child reported the matter to the grandmother, who told her to go to the clinic and school. When the minor got to school, she told her friend what had happened. The friend, together with the victim, went back to the grandmother after school and told her what the victim had shared with her, but the grandmother chased the friend away,” she said.

Two weeks later, when the victim was washing dishes in the kitchen, Mr X came in and sexually assaulted her.

In December 2019, during the school holidays, the child was reunited with her mother who noticed her behaviour had changed. When questioned, the child told her mother about the ordeal.

The mother reported the matter to the police and Mr X was arrested on January 8. 2020. He had been in custody since then, after the NPA opposed bail, said Mahanjana.

In court, Mr X pleaded not guilty to the charges against him.

Prosecutor Paulina Mochaka asked the court to consider what the victim went through when sentencing Mr X.

The court heard that as an uncle, Mr X had failed to protect the girl.

The magistrate agreed with the State that Mr X had preyed on the child and was still refusing to take responsibility for what he did, and the grandmother also did not protect the child, she did nothing, said Mahanjana.

She said the 62-year-old grandmother was summoned to appear in court on March 19 last year, facing a charge of failure to report the rape of a minor.

The case against the grandmother will be heard in the Atteridgeville District Court on July 20.

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