HIV+ man gets life for rape

2008-05-08 11:41

Pretoria - An HIV-positive former crocodile hunter was jailed for life on Wednesday for raping a former girlfriend's eight-year-old daughter.

Acting Pretoria High Court Judge Chris Eksteen sentenced 37-year-old Jimmy Samuel Hudson to life imprisonment.

He was convicted of raping the girl when his former girlfriend left the child in his care while she was at work.

Hudson, a former Botswana crocodile hunter with no schooling, worked in a local store until he became too ill to work.

He lived on a small disability pension at the time of the incident and was now permanently in a prison hospital section, where he received treatment for tuberculosis and HIV infection.

A social worker said in a report that Hudson blamed his victim for the crime, claiming she was "sexually ripe" and "did naughty things with boys in the grass".

Hudson had apparently turned to other women after his girlfriend refused him sex when she heard he was HIV positive.

The little girl sustained both physical and emotional injuries in the attack. She lived in fear, had flashbacks, withdrew from society and no longer wanted to play with other children.

Judge Eksteen said fathers and caregivers who sexually abused children in their care had no place in society.

Hudson had abused a position of trust when he was supposed to have protected the child, and had seen his way open to rape a child despite his HIV positive status.

Eksteen dismissed argument by defence counsel that Hudson was a first offender and that the rape was not the worst form of rape.

"What is the worst case? Should this court sit back with its hands folded until the worst rape comes before it?" he asked.

"This court sits almost every day with cases where women and children were sexually abused.... The legislator enacted the Minimum Sentences Act to protect society. It was clearly the intention that such crimes should be punished severely."

The judge added that he would not indulge in "window dressing" to try to find artificial grounds in mitigation of the prescribed sentence.

Hudson was granted leave to appeal against his sentence.

- SAPA