FOUR LIFE TERMS AND 30 YEARS FOR A MOTHER CONVICTED OF MULTIPLE SEXUAL OFFENCES AND RAPE OF HER 5-YEAR-OLD DAUGHTER
LUTENDO LIVHEBE – MUDAU. The Pretoria North Magistrates’ Court sentenced a mother (39) from Dorandia in Pretoria North to four life terms and 30 years direct imprisonment for four counts of rape, two counts of sexual assault, and exposure to genitals as well as three counts of creation of pornography. All these offences were committed towards her 5-year-old daughter. The magistrate ordered that her name be added on the National Register of Sexual Offenders, and she be declared unfit to work with children.
The mother was in a relationship with a man who is a co-accused in the matter. From December 2021 to March 2022, the mother and her boyfriend raped the child, using objects. They sexually assaulted her and made the child perform sexual acts on her and her boyfriend. When the boyfriend was at his own place the mother would take pictures of the child’s private parts, and videos of her performing sexual acts on the child and send it to her boyfriend for his pleasure.
The mother was arrested on 18 March 2022, after the mother sent a disturbing video clip of the child on WhatsApp to her friend, who then reported the matter to the police. In court the mother pleaded guilty to all 10 charges against her. She told the court that she committed all those offences because she craved the attention of her boyfriend and wanted his approval since she was always at home and taking care of her 15-year-old child living with a disability. Through her legal representative she asked the court to deviate from the prescribed sentence and asked for a sentence of 20 years.
However, prosecutor Hanlie Du Preez, asked the court to impose the prescribed minimum sentence of life imprisonment because the mother was in a position of trust. She was supposed to love and protect the child; instead she took advantage of that trust. She told the court that in most cases rapists are not devils with horns, but people who live amongst us. The mother sacrificed her child for a relationship.
The Magistrate agreed with the state and said a long-term direct imprisonment was the only appropriate sentence option that will reflect the seriousness of the offence.
The NPA welcomes the sentence as fitting in this gruesome case involving a child, especially at this period of the 16 Days of Activism against violence on women and children.
The matter against her co-accused will appear at regional court 1 on 02 February 2023 for possible plea.
