Ten-year ordeal ends as HIV-positive man gets life for repeatedly raping his stepdaughter

A 53-year-old HIV-positive man who repeatedly raped his stepdaughter between 2008 and 2018 was sentenced to life imprisonment by the high court in Makhanda on Thursday.

The ordeal started when the then 11-year-old victim moved in with her mother in Komani at the beginning of 2008.

“The stepfather then started raping her by penetrating her with his fingers,” said regional NPA spokesperson Anelisa Ngcakani.

“Six years later, during June 2014, the stepfather discovered that she had a boyfriend. This angered him so much that he took the girl to a clinic for family planning and then started raping her a week later while the mother was at church.

“The rapes then snowballed. During the 2015 December holidays, when the mother left to visit family in Port Elizabeth, he raped her until her mother returned in January 2016.

“He continued to rape her regularly until 2018, when the victim moved out of the family home to undergo training at a police training college. The rapes occurred on a few occasions when she visited.”

The stepfather discovered a photo of the victim's boyfriend in her phone while she visited during September 2018​.

“He then took her to a forest where he assaulted her with fists and a piece of wood. He continued to assault her even later on in the day. As a result, she sustained a fractured wrist and bruising over her lower body,” said Ngcakani.

The victim broke her silence when she returned to the training college and told a police officer about the rapes and assaults.

The court sentenced the stepfather to:

• life imprisonment for rape;
• 10 years for attempted murder as he raped the girl while he knew that he was HIV-positive;
• five years for assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm; and
• 12 months for assault.

His application for leave to appeal the sentence of life imprisonment was refused.

DispatchLIVE