Child rapist gets life
2008-06-17 20:16
Grahamstown - The Grahamstown High Court sentenced a 21-year-old man on Tuesday to life in prison for raping a two-year-old girl.
Judge Johan Froneman dismissed the application for leave to appeal against the sentence from Thulani Jafta, of Madukeni Sada in Cathcart.
Froneman said no other court would come to a different conclusion.
Earlier this year, Froneman found Jafta guilty of raping the girl at her grandmother's house on a neighbouring farm, on September 9, last year.
Jafta was also convicted of three counts of assault when neighbours discovered him inside the house, with the girl who was partially undressed and crying.
Jafta was further sentenced to six months on each of the assault convictions, and Froneman ordered that these sentences run concurrently with the life term.
"I can hardly imagine a worse case than this. She was a completely helpless little girl aged two years and four months.
"She was substantially injured as a result of the rape and the accused has not displayed any sign of remorse, whatsoever. This is borne out by both his conduct and the improbable version of the event he (Jafta) put as evidence before this court," the Judge said.
Jafta, who had pleaded not guilty, claimed when he testified that the girl had "asked him to undress her so she could go to the toilet".
Froneman said Jafta had assaulted two women and a man, "after he was caught in the act and they had shouted and screamed at him, to stop what he was doing to the child".
Senior state advocate Jan Engelbrecht conceded that Jafta's two previous convictions listed on the SAPS 69 form, had not been proven by the state, and though considered a first offender, Engelbrecht wanted life imprisonment for him.
Lawyer Templeton Solani took instructions from the Legal Aid Board to defend Jafta.
- SAPA