A “despicable” serial rapist of elderly women‚ 30-year-old Luyanda Qononda from KwaGcina village in Sterkspruit‚ was jailed for 30 years after entering into a plea deal with the state to avoid life behind bars.
He raped five elderly women he found inside some of the 10 homes he broke into and burgled. His oldest victim was 82.
One of his victims died from the trauma of the attack‚ said Mthatha High Court judge Fatima Dawood when she sentenced him on Monday.
The judge told Zononda: “Rape is the most cowardly crime. [You] preyed predominantly on vulnerable and elderly women. Such despicable actions have to be condemned in the strongest terms and this court would not have hesitated to give a life sentence. But we will consider that he spared the victims the further trauma and indignity of not having to relive the ordeal [with the guilty plea].”
Qononda’s spree of violence started in Orangefontein village in November 2012 and finally came to an end in April 2015.
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