Africa-Press – Lesotho. AN 83-year-old man from Ha-Jakopo in Qacha’s Nek was this week jailed for 10 years without an option of a fine for raping an eight-year-old girl. The man, Magistrate ’Mampho Mokoena heard , raped the girl and threatened to kill her if she told anyone what had happened.
The man was living in the same village with the girl’s family. The girl was staying with her grandmother. The court heard that the grandmother sent the young girl to the old man’s house to ask for mealie-meal.
He gave her and asked the girl to tell her grandmother to give him some meat. The girl, Magistrate Mokena heard, took the meat to him and immediately after she entered his house he closed the door.
The girl told the court that the man undressed her by force, covering her mouth with his hand to prevent her from calling for help, and then raped her.
After that he instructed her not to tell anyone or else he would kill her. The girl, the court heard, met her age-mates playing in the street nearby and joined them.
During the play, she told one of the girls who was older what had happened to her. The older girl, the court heard, took the girl to her elders who immediately confronted the old man and frogmarched him to the chief’s court.
The chief handed him over to the police. The girl’s mother, the court heard, is working as a domestic worker in South Africa, leaving her in the care of the grandmother.
Advocate Tsotang Maile, for the crown, asked the court to give the old man a heavy sentence to warn others of the same mentality that crime does not pay.
“This court should take cases of child rape seriously because this has now become a trend in Qacha’s Nek,” Advocate Maile said.
“Although it is his first time to appear in court, he should be given a heavy sentence because sexually assaulting a child of that age is a serious offence,” he said.
The convict, who was looking extremely frail, maintained throughout the trial that he was innocent. “I am not guilty, I did not rape the girl,” the old man who is also partly deaf said.
“Maybe the child was advised by someone older in the village to falsely implicate me. I do not remember raping this child,” he said. “I ask the court to release me because I am sick.”
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