Judge Brands Serial Rapist 'Sexual Demon'
Lebogang Mosikare | Tuesday September 28, 2021 06:00
Lesego Mmapadi (37), appeared before Justice Barnabas Nyamadzabo on Friday to hear his appeal against both his conviction and sentence after he was given 10 years in jail for his third rape case by a lower court.
His appeal at the High Court did not yield the desired results where he appealed that he was already imprisoned for 12 years after having been found guilty of two rape offences.
The lower court had ordered the sentences for the two rape cases to run concurrently because they emanated from the same transaction. Justice Nyamadzabo said When the appellant appealed both his conviction and sentence in the third case, Mmapadi pleaded with the court to consider that he was already serving 12 years in jail. The appellant, Justice Nyamadzabo continued, premised his grounds of appeal on that he was later found guilty of rape in the instant case in which he was imprisoned to 10 years.
The judge added: “The appellant also said that he was young when he committed the offences adding that he did not waste the court’s precious time by readily pleading guilty to the offences". Essentially, Justice Nyamadzabo explained, the appellant said the sentence induced a state of shock in him and was inhumane. “The appellant is also praying with this court to make an order that his 10-year imprisonment in his third rape should be ordered to run concurrently with his 12-year jail term.
In his appeal papers, the appellant also contended that he did not break the door to enter the room that the complainant and her six children were sleeping in. He also said that he did not subdue the complainant by choking her but he entered her room, sat down with her and politely asked to have sex with her which request was granted,” Nyamadzabo said.
The summary of facts that the appellant accepted shows that in the instant case, the complainant’s room was closed and locked, the judge stated. “Instead, the facts show that the appellant entered the complaint's room through the window by using a drum. Given that the victim was sleeping with her six children in the same room and taking into consideration that one of them was a female aged 13, it is highly improbable that the victim could have left the door open when she went to sleep.
I find that the trial magistrate was right to say that the door was closed and locked,” Nyamadzabo said. Mmapadi, Justice Nyamadzabo said, agreed that while the victim was under duress, she asked the appellant to at least use a condom to which the appellant emphatically agreed as shown by the facts. “Basically, it means that the appellant engaged in sexual intercourse with the complainant without her consent because she was under duress.
When the facts were read to the appellant, he also admitted that his actions were unlawful.
In my considered view, your plea was unequivocal... The instant case did not arise from the same transaction as your two previous cases or is in any way related to them,” said the judge.
That being the case, there is no basis upon which the appellant can say that his 12-year jail term shall run concurrently with the 10 years imprisonment in this instant case, Justice Nyamadzabo elucidated. Justice Nyamadzabo added: “It is clear to me that you have no respect for women and you are a sexual demon. I am satisfied from the evidence which I have heard in the course of this trial and from your previous conviction for two sexual offences resulting in 12 years imprisonment that you constitute a serious danger to women.
In my view, the 10 years imprisonment that the trial magistrate imposed in this instant case is a fitting sentence. The magistrate was correct to order your instant sentence to run consecutively with your previous one. Therefore, your application that your 12-year jail term shall run concurrently with the current sentence is dismissed.”