CHILD RAPIST GETS LIFE X3
‘City streets a safer place’ after ...
“WE THANK God that this monster has been permanently removed from society and will spend the rest of his life behind bars, where he cannot inflict any further harm on our children – the streets of Kimberley are today a safer place.”
These were the words of family members of the two young Galeshewe girls who were raped by Moses Monnapule, who was yesterday sentenced to three terms of life imprisonment.
Monnapule, 45, was yesterday sentenced to life imprisonment after being found guilty of three rape charges and two of kidnapping following an incident where he lured the two girls, aged six and eight at the time, to his shanty in Madiba Square in June 2015, where he kept them overnight and raped them.
Northern Cape High Court Judge Vernon Smith said yesterday that the offences Monnapule committed were “of a very serious nature”.
“You took two children away from where they were playing and sexually penetrated both of them. This, in anyone’s book, is a very repulsive crime. It is humiliating, degrading and a brutal invasion of the privacy, dignity and person of the victims,” Smith told Monnapule.
Referring to the interests of society, Smith noted that the country is “facing a crisis of epidemic proportions in respect of rape, particularly of young children”.
“The public is rightly outraged by this rampant scourge. There is consequently increasing pressure on our courts to impose harsher sentences to exact retribution and to deter further criminal conduct,” Smith stated.
Mercy
While Smith added that the court should always blend a sentence with mercy toward the offender, an analysis of Monnapule’s previous convictions showed that there was an attempt by previous presiding officers to rehabilitate Monnapule as an offender but that lenient and sometimes stiffer sentences could not succeed in making Monnapule a more responsible person.
Monnapule has a string of previous convictions dating back to 1984, including housebreaking, theft, rape, robbery, assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm, use of illegal substances, possession of drugs, housebreaking with the intent to rape and malicious damage to property.
“Your natural behaviour to shift the blame was evident in this case. You do not take responsibility for your actions and showed no remorse. You are a threat to society,” Smith told Monnapule.
Smith added that he could not find any substantial and compelling circumstances to deviate from the prescribed minimum sentences with regard to the three rape counts (life imprisonment) and proceeded to sentence Monnapule to life imprisonment for each of the three rape convictions and three years imprisonment for each of the two kidnapping convictions.
He ordered that the sentences imposed for the two kidnapping counts run concurrently with the life imprisonment sentences. Monnapule was also declared unfit to possess a firearm and Smith ordered that his name be added to the National Register for Sex Offenders. He may also never be employed to work with children or hold any position where he could have access to children or places where children are present.