Man gets two life sentence for raping child twice

A Northern Cape man who had nowhere to go and was taken in by a couple with three children has been handed two life sentences for raping the child of the people who gave him a home.

The 36-year-old man was sentenced by the Galeshewe regional court for two counts of rape.

According to Mojalefa Senokoatsane, spokesperson for the National Prosecuting Authority in the Northern Cape, the man raped the 11-year-old girl on May 1 2022 and the following day.

The man can’t be named to protect the identity of the girl as he was staying with her family in a two-bedroom house at the time of the rapes and had raised her.

Senokoatsane said the couple felt sorry for the man and took him in as he had no place to stay.

He said when the man started staying with the family, the girl he would later rape was still an infant. “The accused, whom the family trusted as he had helped raise the children, was sleeping with the children in the same room on the floor because of the limited space in the house. He was a family friend of the victim and had known the family for years making him a part of the family,” said Senokoatsane.

“While being accommodated by the family, the accused took advantage of the situation and began to rape the victim while the rest of the family was sleeping in the same house.”

The child informed her parents and the man was arrested and denied bail. During the trial, the girl’s parents said they had considered the man as a fatherly figure but had betrayed their hospitality and trust by assaulting their child.

In his defence, the man denied he had raped the child but the DNA proved he had in fact violated her.