“Trying to find a balance in all the circumstances, I find that the accused have to be removed from society.”

THREE men were sentenced to life imprisonment in the Kimberley Sexual Offences Court on Friday after kidnapping and gang-raping a 17-year-old girl in March 2015.

The men, Sylvester Boitumelo Monabe, 24, Lebogang Paul Mongale, 34, and McDonald Modisapudi, 28, were each sentenced to life imprisonment after being found guilty of rape, as well as a further three years each for kidnapping. The two sentences will run concurrently.

Due to the violent nature of the crime, they were also declared unfit to carry a firearm.

According to the victim, who welcomed the sentence handed down by Magistrate Cordelia Kgopa, five men were involved in the rape, which took place in Promised Land on March 28, 2015. During the incident, the men forced her to accompany them to one of the accused’s shack, where she has held hostage for more than seven hours. The other two men, who were unknown to the victim, were never arrested.

Handing down her sentence, Magistrate Kgopa pointed out that the victim had to endure what the accused did to her – one of them even saying during the crime, “Come on, baby, come on.”

“It stands out that you are first offenders,” Kgopa told the accused, “but you started on a high note.”

She added that, in deciding on an appropriate sentence, she had to take the interests of the community into account as no one would want this to happen to their daughters.

“This court has to apply the appropriate sentence so that the