HIV+ rapist, killer gets life
2005-09-15 12:13
Johannesburg - An HIV-positive man who raped a five-year-old KwaZulu-Natal girl before killing her has been given two life sentences, the Daily News website reported on Thursday.
Pronouncing sentence, Pietermaritzburg High Court Judge Thumba Pillay said the callousness of the crime deserved nothing but the severest punishment.
Bheka Luthi, 40, pleaded guilty to the rape and murder of the child at Mandini near Mtunzini, in northern KwaZulu-Natal, on July 31.
He said the child visited his home in the company of her grandmother on the day of the crime.
He and the child left the house. He asked her to go into the bushes with him and she complied.
After raping the girl he had felt "dizzy" and had fallen asleep. He had been drinking earlier.
When he woke up, the child was still there.
Luthi told the court he had been afraid she would report the crime and that the community would take revenge - so he strangled her and left her body in the bushes.
The judge said the fact that Luthi was HIV-positive at the time, and knew it, was an aggravating feature of the case.
He had, in effect, been playing Russian roulette with the child's life before he killed her, Pillay said.
- SAPA