Relatives implicated in separate rape charges
Correspondent | Monday February 15, 2021 15:30
On Friday, residents of Monarch location woke up to the news that one of the women in the area was raped last week, between Thursday night and Friday morning.
However, the name of the alleged perpetrator did not surprise the Monarch residents.
The suspect has been linked to robbery and rape offences before. Although this publication is privy to the name of the suspect, The Monitor cannot reveal his identity for now until he is arraigned in court. Unconfirmed reports say that the suspect was arrested on Saturday. The suspect once served time in prison for rape and was released from jail close to four years back. After he was released from jail, he allegedly fell back into his old ways when he robbed a US Peace Corp of a bag worth P250, phone valued at $700, automated bank cards of two American banks and P600 amongst other goods along Haskins Street on February 22, 2019. The suspect, 34, was later granted bail in the robbery matter and there is a high possibility that once he is arrested, the court may revoke his bail until the finalisation of the recent rape allegation against him.
Central Police Station Commander, Lebalang Maniki confirmed the latest rape allegation. Maniki, however, said he was constrained to reveal the names of the person of interest since he was as of Friday afternoon yet to be arrested and has not appeared in court. “We are looking for the person that you are talking about, but we can’t at this stage reveal his names before he appears in court,” said a worried Maniki. In a related matter, Maniki also confirmed that the police are also on the lookout for another suspect who raped a woman aged between 40 and 45 towards the end of last month in Monarch.
The Monitor has it on good authority that the suspect in the above case is a nephew to the 34-year-old suspect who raped a woman in her 20s between Thursday and Friday. While the duo is still at large in connection with rape cases, the 34-year-old suspect’s younger brother is languishing in jail for rape and robbery. The convict was sent to the slammer for robbing and raping a girlfriend of a police officer at Government Camp in 2013.
He was in 2014 sentenced to seven years in jail for each offence and the magistrate also made an order that the offences shall run consecutively. Said Dumisani Basupi, then magistrate in the case, when passing sentence: “The events that happened to the complainant are very unfortunate. Her boyfriend was inside the house and I wonder what could have happened had he come out of the house. In a nutshell I find that violence was used to commit the offences since the complainant sustained abrasions in her private parts and lacerations on her left hand. Having assessed evidence before me, I sentence the accused to seven years in jail for robbery and seven years for rape. In addition, he shall be given three strokes for each offence after being certified fit by a medical practitioner. Both sentences shall run consecutively and any party that is not satisfied with the sentences shall approach the High Court in 14 days.”