Man gets two life terms for rape of girl, 4

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File photo

Published Jan 16, 2018

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Pretoria - A judge told the rapist of a 4-year-old girl that his actions were barbaric and that it will not be tolerated in a civil society.

Judge Mmonoa Teffo on Tuesday sentenced Fanyana Lucas  Ndlovu, a former handyman at a supermarket, to two life terms in jail.

The Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, heard that he had raped the child so badly - both vaginally and anally - that she had to spend several days in hospital due to her injuries.

The child, who could not walk for days after the incident, had suffered lasting health problems due to the rapes.

Ndlovu, 38, insisted that he knew nothing about the incident, although the child had identified him as the culprit.  His DNA was also found on the child as well as on a beanie she wore that night.

She testified how, after raping her and leaving her alone in the bushes, he cleaned himself with her beanie before he gave it back to her.

Convicted rapist Lucas Ndlovu. Picture: Zelda Venter/Pretoria News.

The half undressed and crying child was found in the bushes by a woman who was visiting a nearby shebeen and went to the remote spot where the child was, to relieve herself.

The child went with her family to the home of a family friend in Malhebe squatter camp near Benoni in August 2014, to tend to the sick child of the friend. The  sick child eventually died.

While the adults were mourning inside the house and busy making funeral arrangements, the child was playing outside the house with friends.

Ndlovu approached the child and asked her to walk with him, as he was going to buy her sweets. The trusting child followed him, but she resisted when he dragged her by the arm into nearby bushes.

He forced the child down and raped her twice.

The child earlier testified how she cried and begged him for mercy, but he ignored her pleas.

The woman from the nearby shebeen said she found teh child with her panty around one of her legs and her clothes were inside out. She was also fitly from the dirt on the ground.

She took the child along to the shebeen for someone to identify her, but nobody knew her.

She took the child to another shebeen, where she was also not identified. As she left the shebeen the owner of the house where the child and her family were staying at the time, came past and identified the child. He took her home to her mother.

The child was rushed to the Far East Rand Hospital as she could not walk and it was established that she had been raped.

Her private parts were so severely injured that she had to be operated on twice.

Ndlovu was arrested soon after the rapes as he casually again walked past the house.

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Pretoria News

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