Abused wife returned to husband - only to be scalped and raped

An abused wife who left her husband of 27 years gave in to his pleas for her to come home - and was immediately scalped and raped.

The Cape Town woman's husband partly scalped her while chopping off her hair, then cut off her clothes and raped her in what a judge called a "jealous rage".

Cape Town High Court judge Derek Wille dismissed the husband's appeal against his Parow regional court convictions for assault and rape and his sentence of 26 years imprisonment.

According to Wille's judgment, the regional court heard the couple had been estranged for three months when the attack happened in December 2016.

The husband sent their two daughters to see their mother with a letter begging her to come home. When she did, he assaulted her and raped her twice.

In his appeal, the husband said the sex had been consensual, but Wille said he accepted the regional court's conclusion that the order in which the assault and the rapes took place made it clear this was not the case.

This was supported by the woman's explanation that she had been too scared to refuse oral sex, he said.