Molapowabojang teacher aide guilty of pupil's rape
Sharon Mathala | Thursday November 10, 2022 08:58
The man, Mogomotsi Kgosietsile was accused of sexually abusing his students between the years 2020 and 2021. Facts of the case are that whilst a teacher aide at the primary school, Kgosietsile would occasionally lure the Standard 1 students to a storeroom and abused them on different dates.
Reading out judgment this week, Lobatse senior magistrate, Gofaone Morning noted that the state was only able to prove beyond reasonable doubt the charge of rape but failed to provide the court with sufficient evidence to back up the 66 indecent assault charges.
Giving a background of the case, the Magistrate noted that the teacher aide's abusive ways were discovered by his fellow teacher who discovered used condoms in the storeroom. “The class progressed to Standard 2 in the year 2021 and the accused remained as Teacher Aide whilst Motlagomang Sengate became the new class teacher. It was as well their narrative that on October 21, 2021, the latter found an unwrapped condom in the storeroom and questioned the former about its presence. He told her that he had forgotten to discard it after using it with his partner. Subsequently, she reported the incident to Cecilia Tshamekang who was the School Head and she consequently sanctioned an internal investigation. During the investigation, the accused was interviewed and he gave an improbable story that he wanted to use the particular condom with a certain Standard 7 student. They also questioned his students who detailed that he was in the habit of luring other students away to the toilets and remaining with student A (name protected) in the storeroom.”
The school then contacted the police and the families of the students. The students were then taken to the hospital for testing.
During the trial, one of his victims told the court that her teacher did bad things to her. “She set forth that on the date she did not recall the accused lured other students away and sent them to the toilets. He then led her into the storeroom where he laid her on the mat. He pulled her skirt up and panty down and also pulled down his pair of trousers. Thereafter, he mounted her and did bad things to her. When the other students returned he stopped and told them to walk around the classroom. It was evident that A was overwhelmed with emotions in the course of her testimony. "She was asked to explain what she meant by bad things but she kept sobbing and did not give an explanation. She was, however, consistent in her evidence and this court had an opportunity to observe her demeanour. Clearly, she did not strike this court as an individual who would scheme to implicate the accused. The accused person had occupied a position of authority and trust over her as the Teacher Aide and there was no clear reason why she would have accused him of such an act. I am, therefore, satisfied that she was a credible witness,” further reads the judgment. The other witnesses, who were pupils in the same class, corroborated her position that the accused was in the habit of sending them away to the toilet and remaining with her in the storeroom.
Explaining why the court acquitted the teacher aid on the 66 charges of indecent assault, the Magistrate explained in his judgment that “the alleged acts of indecent assaults are alleged to have taken place when the complainants were in Standard 1 and ultimately when they were in Standard 2. None of the complainants was able to testify on the exact dates that the alleged assault took place safe to say that the prosecution stated that the offences were committed when the class teacher was absent. They, however, failed to lead evidence supporting the said position.”
The Magistrate continued: “They were directed by the court to address it in their submission, but they failed. This court shall therefore not be speculative where the crafters of the charge themselves failed to give a probable explanation about the dates of the alleged offences. The sporadic dates on the charge sheet clearly made it difficult for the accused to properly defend himself in the 66 counts of indecent assault. "The accused person's defence was merely that he had no access to the storeroom and this alone did not avail him a meritorious defence. On the totality of the evidence before me, I am satisfied that the prosecution has established beyond reasonable doubt that the accused person committed the offence rape against student A and has failed to prove beyond that he committed the 66 counts of indecent assault.”
In the end, Kgosietsile was found guilty of a lone count of rape and acquitted and discharged on the 66 counts of indecent assault.