Family in tears as Phillips gets jailed for rape
CONVICTED rapist Taariq Phillips, 28, has been sentenced to 10 years in jail for the rape of his girlfriend of five years, Sharisha Chauhan, 21, before she died.
On New Year’s Day in 2014, she died after taking MDMA and LSD with Phillips and friends. A post-mortem examination found she had sustained vaginal and anal tears of about 7cm.
Yesterday, Cape High Court Judge Lee Bozalek said Phillips didn’t show genuine remorse.
Phillips was convicted on September 12. Judge Bozalek said: “He was found guilty of raping someone with whom he had a loving, intimate and non-abusive relationship. The accused was presented with an opportunity to satisfy his own sexual desires with someone who’d lost all inhibition and was unable to give consent.
“The injuries involved considerable force and great pain.”
Judge Bozalek said the rapes were serious and occurred when Chauhan needed help. “She was unfit; physically and mentally for sexual intercourse. She needed help. There was a deep breach of trust… He was entrusted by her family to bring her back safely.”
Phillips was handcuffed and his family, in tears, comforted him. Phillips’s counsel, advocate Burger Brandt, applied for leave to appeal, arguing the case was based on circumstantial evidence. “They erred in finding rape was the only reasonable inference.”
Judge Bozalek rejected the appeal and Phillips will start serving his sentence in Pollsmoor Prison following a four-year trial.