Notorious criminal found guilty of rape

Senior Magistrate Thebeetsile Mulalu found Dimpho Lekgetho, 38, guilty of raping a senior secondary school student in 2012 in the bushes between Gerald Estates and Kgaphamadi locations.

Lekgetho raped the complainant while she was going to school in the morning from Gerald Estates where she stays.  Last week the accused was sentenced to seven strokes of the cane for insulting Magistrate Mulalu. In the rape case, the magistrate said that the state has proved beyond reasonable doubt that Lekgetho was the assailant who attacked the girl and raped her in the bushes. He threatened the girl with a knife after she tried to rebuff his unsolicited sexual overtures. On the day he committed the offence, he had gone into the bush to collect firewood with his nephew.