A former caregiver at an East London old age home‚ Ncediswa Mkenkcele‚ is going to prison for eight years for the 2015 assaults on the late Hope Shepherd‚ the East London Regional Court ruled on Thursday.
Magistrate Ignatius Kitching said that a correctional service supervision sentence "will be inappropriately lenient" and that Mkenkcele‚ who he found not to have been remorseful‚ must go straight to jail.
He handed her a total of 15 years imprisonment on five counts of assault‚ but because the sentences will run concurrently‚ Kitching ordered that Mkenkcele serve at least eight years.
Shepherd was a resident at the Lily Kirchmann complex. Mkenkcele resigned from her job shortly before disciplinary action was instituted against her.
The story has made national headlines and was recently aired by Carte Blanche.
- TMG Digital/DispatchLIVE
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