Molteno man guilty of rape and robbery

Serial Molteno offender Athenkosi Matyaleni, 26, was on Wednesday found guilty of raping and robbing four women and a child in a terror spree spanning some 17 months.

All his crimes were committed between December 2017 and May 2019 in the small town of Molteno, high in the Stormberg mountains.

Judge Thami Beshe found him guilty of five counts of rape as well as on charges of robbery, assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and robbery with aggravating circumstances.

She said he had preyed on vulnerable women walking late at night, as well as a child.

In each case he had come across the women and had threatened, raped and robbed them. In one case he chased away a friend of one of the women by badly assaulting her with a bottle. He had then raped the other woman.

In the case of the child, he had come across her picking berries with her friends in the veld. He had chased the other children away threatening them with a knife, before raping her. She had been so badly injured that she had to be anaesthetised before the doctor could examine her.

Matyaleni pleaded not guilty to all the crimes. He claimed he had consensual sex with three of his victims including the child whom he said had claimed to be 13 at the time.

Beshe dismissed his version of events as demonstrably false. She said he was a poor witness whereas all the women and the child had been good witnesses. There had also been evidence corroborating their version of events including other witnesses and DNA evidence.

She said there had been a common thread in most of the attacks where he would do all that he could to avoid being identified by his victims.

He would swear at and use violence against them before raping them. He would also threaten to kill them if they reported the rape before stealing their phones and money.

“The state succeeded in proving the guilt of the accused in all charges beyond reasonable doubt.”

State advocate Sharon Hendricks produced evidence proving several previous convictions for housebreaking and theft.

Detective-sergeant Sehloho Mokheseng was the investigating officer. Hendricks prosecuted while Legal Aid attorney Templeton Solani defended Matyalenei.

Argument on sentencing will be heard on Thursday.