Dad jailed 255yrs for raping daughters
PIGG’S PEAK – Unless he can live up to 300 years, a man who was convicted of raping his daughters will never leave prison alive.
*Jerry (45), who was found guilty of raping his two daughters, was sentenced to a total of 255 years for the rape cases he committed between 2007 and 2018. He had appeared before retired Principal Magistrate Joe Gumedze yesterday where he was informed of his sentence.
Jerry, who opted to sit down as he did not agree with the conviction, listened attentively as the magistrate read out his sentence.
He was arrested in 2018 while residing at Nkamanzi for the offences of raping his daughters he had from two women. He had pleaded not guilty to the charges and despite being found guilty, he protested against this.
Jerry was initially charged with 20 counts of raping his daughters in different occasions.
Ordeal
It was said he started committing the rape offences in 2007 when he raped his daughter who was eight years old at the time. This means that the rape offences took place over 11 years.
The offences are said to have taken place mainly in Malkerns, Siphofaneni and Nkamanzi but this was said to have continued when Jerry moved to other areas.
After a thorough investigation, Jerry was arrested by Constable Thando Dlamini, who was based at Buhleni Police Post at the time. Dlamini also testified against Jerry during the trial.
When passing the sentences, the retired principal magistrate said it was shocking that Jerry had committed such offences to his children.
He said his actions were shocking because Jerry did not seem to have any problem with getting women since he already had sired two children. The magistrate said Jerry could have even gone back to the children’s mothers to propose love again yet he opted to rape his children.
The magistrate noted that at some point, Jerry stayed with his two daughters while living with his wife at Malkerns. He said when his wife worked the night shift, Jerry would spend the night taking turns raping his daughters.
“You turned them into sex slaves,” said the magistrate, who added that the trauma he had inflicted on his children was ‘too huge to imagine’. He said it was only because of God that the children had survived the trauma.
The magistrate said Jerry made it difficult for the girls to live such that he would not provide for their school financial needs unless they agreed to his sex demands.
Jerry is said to have adopted the ‘no sex no school’ rule with his daughters. When they were not living with him, he would not send money directly to them for school but would demand that they visit him so that he could give it to them physically. However, when they arrived to collect school fees, he would rape them. The magistrate said Jerry had been found guilty in 17 of the 20 charges.
Sentence
He said he would sentence the accused to 15 years for each of the charges and ordered that the sentences should run consecutively. He said this meant that Jerry will serve 255 years.
After the court had adjourned, Jerry could be heard protesting such that he refused to allow police officer Constable Khosi Mabilisa to take his fingerprints.
A warder also asked Jerry to have his fingerprints taken but he continued to protest. He refused to do so until he was taken away to start serving his sentences. Mncedisi Dlamini was the prosecutor in the matter.
Meanwhile, records show that Jerry’s father and his brother are also serving sentences related to rape. His father was convicted of attempting to rape his granddaughter while his brother was convicted of rape.
They were tried separately by the same Principal Magistrate Joe Gumedze who is now retired.