FORMER EDUCATION DEPARTMENT SENIOR OFFICIAL GUILTY OF RAPING A MINOR
The High Court of South Africa, Eastern Cape Division, sitting in Mthatha, has found 58-year-old former subject advisor, Louis Pepping, guilty of raping a six-year-old girl. Delivering judgement, Acting Judge, Mvuzo Notyesi, found that the state had proven its case beyond a reasonable doubt. The court described all the witnesses led by Senior State Advocate Mbulelo Nyendwana, as credible and accepted the forensic evidence corroborating the state witnesses.
Evidence presented is that on the afternoon of 01 September 2019, the victim was sent to buy chips at a Spaza Shop near her home in Ngobozana Locality, in the district of Lusikisiki. When she did not return as expected, her siblings were asked to go look for her as it was getting dark. After a while, the victim’s grandmother joined the search and found the victim with one of her siblings. She noticed the victim was shivering and bleeding from her private part.
The victim led her grandmother, together with some members of the community, to the house belonging to Pepping and identified him as the person who had grabbed her from the street and raped her in his room. Community members assaulted Pepping until he was rescued by the local traditional leader who summoned the police. The victim was taken to the St. Elizabeth Hospital Thuthuzela Care Centre, where she was examined before being transferred to Nelson Mandela Academic Hospital, due to the severity of her injuries. A sheet with blood stains and DNA were retrieved from Pepping’s room. He was immediately arrested and taken to hospital as he had sustained injuries from being assaulted by community members.
The court rejected Pepping’s defence that some other persons must have brought the victim into his unlocked room and raped her, as farfetched and inherently improbable.
When the matter returns to court for arguments on sentence, the state will request the court to sentence the convicted child rapist to life imprisonment as the prescribed in law.
