Cape Town - A man was sentenced to life in jail on Tuesday for robbing and raping women outside Cape Town's GF Jooste Hospital.
Western Cape High Court Judge Ashton Schippers said the crimes committed by Vuyisile Stofile, 32, between 2012 and last year were extremely serious.
“The accused's crimes were planned. He treated his victims with violence and indignity,” he said in handing down the sentence.
“Rape is an extremely serious crime. It is a brutal, humiliating and degrading invasion of privacy and person of the victim... Robbery with aggravating circumstances is likewise a very serious crime.”
Stofile kept his eyes down during sentencing and his hands together in front of him at all times.
Members of the African National Congress Women's League and one of his victims sat in on his sentencing.
He was recently convicted of crimes against six women that took place at Nyanga Junction, close to the hospital in Manenberg.
He lured the women to a bushy area behind the hospital by telling them it was dangerous to walk alone and he would show them a safer route to the hospital.
Schippers gave him a life sentence for the vaginal and anal rape of a pregnant woman at knifepoint. After raping her, Stofile had made as though he was going to push her into the path of an oncoming train.
“The trauma she suffered was so severe that by the time of trial, some 18 months after the incident, she could not verbalise the effects of what had happened to her,” Schippers said.
Stofile was given 10 years each for two separate rape charges and six years each for the six robbery charges.
Two of the robbery charges would be served concurrently with the accompanying rape sentences.
Stofile was thus in effect sentenced to life imprisonment (25 years) and an additional 44 years on the other charges.
The court found no substantial and compelling circumstances to deviate from the prescribed minimum sentence for rape.
“He is not young and immature. He has not expressed remorse for his crimes. His prospects of rehabilitation are extremely remote, if at all. The only positive factor is his clean record,” Schippers said.
He deviated from the minimum sentences for robbery.
“While robbery with aggravating circumstances by nature is severe, none of the robberies were associated with gratuitous violence, and none can be regarded as falling in the upper echelon of severity of crimes of this nature.”
Sapa