Rapist 'should get therapy'

2009-07-06 22:08

Cape Town - The Western Cape High Court was urged on Monday to impose a sentence on serial rapist Tsediso Letsoenya that would include psychiatric therapy for his "abnormal sexual misbehaviour".

The plea for such a sentence was made by Letsoenya's defence counsel, Nehemiah Ballem.

The lawyer told Judge Abe Motala that he agreed that Letsoenya's many rape victims had "gone through something very horrible".

Letsoenya is to be sentenced on Friday on 28 counts of rape, which include eight that call for life sentences, as well as eight charges of aggravated armed robbery, which qualify for minimum sentences of 15 years on each of the eight counts.

Ballem asked the court to rule that what Letsoenya had done was "abnormal", as it could not be normal for a man to rape three people one after the other, as Letsoenya had done on some of the charges.

'Must get treatment in prison'

Ballem said: "I ask the court to find that Letsoenya has a sexual problem."

The judge responded: "We need to know why he did this - we accept that what he did was abnormal, but what in your opinion must the court do about it?

"We can only hope that the prison authorities will give him whatever treatment he needs."

The judge said the court could not "sentence Letsoenya to treatment".

Motala said to avoid life sentences for the rapes, or the minimum 15-year sentences on the robbery charges, the court needed to rule that there were substantial and compelling circumstances justifying less severe sentences.

Ballem said there were not any.
 

- SAPA