Meticulous police work puts man in jail for rapes committed 15 years ago

Unrelenting and meticulous police work has resulted in the conviction and sentencing of a man who raped two women in separate incidents in southern Free State 15 years ago.

Const Josephine Rani said the 36-year-old man committed the first offence at the age of 21, when he and an accomplice raped an 18-year-old woman in April 2004 in Oranjeville in the Free State.

Then Lesia Jacob Mokoena and an accomplice raped another woman, aged 19, in July that year, after assaulting her boyfriend. Five years later, Mokoena was arrested for a third rape. He was convicted and sentenced to 20 years' imprisonment, a term he is currently serving.

DNA evidence obtained from the third rape helped police link him to the two 2004 rapes.

The high court, sitting in Zamdela in Sasolsburg, on Tuesday sentenced Mokoena to 60 years in prison for rape, one year for common assault and three years for assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.

The whereabouts of Mokoena's accomplice are not known.