A married man who lied to his teenage girl friend that he wanted to leave his wife for her has been arrested. The 27 year old was arre...
A married man who lied to his teenage girl friend that he wanted to leave his wife for her has been arrested.
The 27 year old was arrested after he viciously raped and tortured the girl.
The grisly attack in the Eastern Cape town — which included the assailant repeatedly beating, kicking, trampling and stabbing the 18year-old all over her body over four days — left her battered, bleeding and bruised, with crush syndrome (severe muscle cell damage) and acute renal failure and close to death.
The 27-year-old attacker may not be identified because it could serve to identify his victim.
The prolonged torture included spraying deodorant on her wounds and in her eyes, and pouring boiling water onto a wound on her arm.
It took two blood transfusions and intensive hospital care to save her life.
The man revealed during his testimony that he himself had been a child born into violence.
But judge Avinash Govindjee said this had happened 25 years ago, and did not constitute substantial and compelling circumstances warranting a sentence less than the mandatory minimum sentence of life imprisonment.
The assault on the young woman had been prolonged and terrible.
Apparently not recognising the irony of his testimony, the man, who was married with children, claimed he had succumbed to a jealous rage because he believed his 18year-old lover was being unfaithful to him with another man.
At one point in the prolonged assault, he had also twice viciously inserted a mop handle into her private parts.
Govindjee sentenced the man to life imprisonment for rape and 20 years for attempted murder.
He found in his conviction judgment that the suspicious and jealous man had resorted to a “tortuous, sustained attack, intentionally designed to inflict harm”.
The attack would have ultimately resulted in the victim’s death had it not been for the intervention of the couple’s landlord, who had called the police.
In sentencing the assailant, Govindjee said the man’s behaviour had been abhorrent and the rape accompanied by an inhumane infliction of pain.
He had also degraded the young woman in other ways, including by inserting the mop handle into her body.
