The state wants the convicted boy to be sentenced to life in prison when the matter returns to the Eastern Cape High Court next week.
Sentencing proceedings will be held for former Eastern Cape department of education subject adviser Louis Pepping, who was found guilty of raping a six-year-old girl.
Evidence of ‘rapist’
Acting Judge Mvuzo Notyesi rejected Pepping’s defense that someone else had taken the victim to an unlocked room and raped her, labeling it “far-fetched” and impossible.
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He said Prosecutor Mbulelo Nyendwana had proved the case beyond reasonable doubt and that all the state’s witnesses were credible. Noticias received forensic evidence that supported the state’s witness account.
A child was caught from the street
The state alleged that Pepping abducted a six-year-old boy when he went to a nearby spaza shop in September 2019 in the village of Ngobozana in Lusikisiki.
He then took her to his house and raped her. When they realized that the boy had not returned from the shop, the grandmother and others went out to look for him. He was later found to be unwell and “bloody from his private parts.”
The boy leads angry community members and his grandmother to Pepping’s place where they find a bloody sheet in his room. He recognizes Pepping and the crowd attacks him.
A video posted on Twitter showed Pepping, wearing only boxer shorts and bleeding from a head wound, being interrogated by a group of men.
Visibly weak, Pepping was heard saying that the attackers were “coming up to court.”
The official was helped by a traditional healer who called the police.
Ramaphosa visited the child’s family
According to the Mail & Guardian, President Cyril Ramaphosa visited the girl’s family after the incident.
He said gender-based violence and killings of women had “exploded in this province”.
A week before Ramaphosa‘s visit ‘s, hundreds of residents took to the streets to march against Pepping’s bail hearing, saying he did not deserve one.
The trial took place in Mthatha where Pepping pleaded not guilty. The case was moved from Lusikisiki due to increased agitation and anger against Pepping.
Pepping laughed through the entire process, according to the publication.
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–Compiled by Asanda Mbayimbai