A 36-year-old man convicted for raping his 48-year-old girlfriend’s mother at her home in Semboyo village in 2021 has been sentenced to 20 years imprisonment.
Presiding Maun Chief Magistrate Thebeetsile Mulalu sentenced, Weya Revero to 20 years in prison with 1 year 7 months wholly suspended for the time he spent remanded pending completion of the matter.
It was found that on the 6th of January last year the accused person allegedly visited the unsuspected old woman at her home where he found her sitting alone by the fire place.
Revero is alleged to have then asked the complainant for sexual intercourse in exchange for P50, an offer the complainant declined. He is said to have then proceeded to force himself on the complainant and in the process cut her with a knife on the chin.
During trail the accused person flatly denied the accusations, but instead told court that the woman was falsely incriminating him because she was ashamed of having slept with her daughter’s boyfriend.
As for stabbing the complainant, Revero said the complainant fell on a tree log as he was trying to free himself from her attempts to force him to have sexual intercourse with him. The accused person claimed he later agreed to have sexual intercourse with the woman and thereafter gave her P50 to buy sugar for herself and the children. He said he was surprised to be arrested the following day for an offence which he knew nothing about.
Giving testimony early on during trial, the Investigating Officer (IO), Jacob Modisaemang told court that when the matter was reported to the police, the complainant was half naked with her clothes soiled and she was also highly distress with a cut on her chin.
The Chief Magistrate previously noted that a doctor’s medical report on the complainant showed that she went through a struggle adding that the victim’s DNA which was found on the knife that was allegedly used during the ordeal corroborated with what the complainant said.
He added that the two state witnesses, Lesang Rebakae and Mmusiemang Morake corroborated the complainant’s statement that the accused person locked the complainant’s house with her kids inside before raping her. It is said that it was the two witnesses who had to help the complainant open her door with a spade in order to enter the house.
He further noted that the two witnesses’ sworn testimony also confirmed the IO’s statement, that the victim was highly distressed, half naked and her clothes were dirty during the night the incident is said to have happened.
When passing the sentence, Mulalu noted that the court took into consideration that the accused person was a first time offender and also his mitigation plea that he is the sole care taker for his mother and that he left his property unattended to.
“However the court also took into account that sexual offences and gender based violence acts are prevalent in our jurisdiction, so something needs to be done about the behaviour,” Mulalu also argued.
He said the fact that the accused person knew his HIV status when committing the offence attracts a minimum of 20 years in prison or a maximum of life imprisonment in accord to the penal code. He noted that though the accused person denied knowing his HIV status when committing the offence, state prosecution was able to discover that he knew his status from September 2013.
