Ex-senior education official gets life term for raping girl, 6
Louis Pepping, a former Eastern Cape department of education senior subject adviser, has been sentenced to life in prison for raping a six-year-old girl in 2019.
Handing down the sentence on Friday, Mthatha high court acting judge Mvuzo Notyesi said Pepping, 58, had preyed upon a vulnerable young child to quench his covetousness and selfish needs.
“There is a prevalence of rape of women and children. The fact that the offence was committed against an innocent, defenceless six year old girl ... aggravates the offence,” the judge said. He added that Pepping, who was educated and had four children of his own, had shown no remorse for his crime.
“Even during these proceedings, the accused showed no remorse. He was laughing, smiling and making some gestures in which he showed the middle finger to this court.
“By the very nature of the offence, it is an obnoxious [act] of the highest order. In the result, the accused is sentenced to undergo life imprisonment,” he said.
The rape occurred on September 1 2019, after the girl had been sent to buy chips at a spaza shop near her home in Lusikisiki.
When she did not return her siblings were asked to look for her because it was getting dark.
The girl’s grandmother later joined the search and found her with one of her siblings.
She noticed that the little girl was shivering and bleeding from her private parts.
The victim led her grandmother, together with some members of the community, to the house belonging to Pepping, and identified him as the person who had grabbed her from the street and raped her in his room.
A sheet with blood stains and DNA was retrieved from Pepping’s room. He was immediately arrested and taken to hospital because he had sustained injuries from being assaulted by community members.