Africa-Press – South-Africa. A serial rapist who used Facebook to lure his victims to a fake tattoo business has been sentenced to two life terms behind bars.
Twenty-one-year-old Mehlodi Robert Baloyi was found guilty of raping four victims, aged 15 to 22, in Westenburg, Polokwane between August 2019 and October 2020.
He was sentenced in the Limpopo High Court in Polokwane on Wednesday.
Desperate job seekers kidnapped, robbed and stripped naked by scammers
In addition to the two life terms for rape, he was also sentenced to 10 years in prison for two additional counts of rape, 10 years for robbery and two years for theft, police spokesperson Brigadier Motlafela Mojapelo said.
The sentences will run concurrently
The court heard that Baloyi used Facebook to advertise a tattooing business.
Mojapelo said:
Some of the victims were robbed of their cellphones.
Baloyi wasn’t the only rapist who used the social media platform to lure women.
Last year, the Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg sentenced Thokozani Jiyane to eight life sentences and a further 223 years for raping 10 women in Boksburg between December 2019 and February 2020.
He lured his victims on Facebook after pretending to be in the film industry, offering jobs to unsuspecting women in the industry or promoting a clothing label.
Alleged rapists have also lured women via Facebook by pretending to be pastors or offering work opportunities to domestic workers and security guards.
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