Rapist father gets 30 years

SISTERS IN FIGHT FOR JUSTICE AFTER ABUSE AT THE HANDS OF THEIR DAD

The sentencing of 54-year-old Mike Cunningham is proof that justice prevails, even if it takes two decades. The Clermont man was sentenced to an effective 30 years imprisonment by the Pinetown Regional Court following an intense investigation into rape charges levelled against him by his daughters, reports Highway Mail.

Cunningham was accused of raping his daughters repeatedly in 1997 and 1998, when they were 10 and 11 years old.

Both complainants did not live with their father at the time, but he would rape them when they visited him at his home in Ndunduma.

Pinetown Cluster communications officer, Captain Bongumusa Manqele, said: “In 1999, they confided in their late grandmother and a case of rape was opened in KwaDabeka where the accused was working as a police reservist, but it was subsequently withdrawn.”

This case was again reported to the police in July 2017 and the accused was sentenced to 30 years imprisonment last month.

Despite the defence asking for a minimum sentence for the accused, saying there was not enough evidence, he is a 54-year-old father with 12 dependants, self-employed, never had the support of his mother, a first-time offender and is on medication for diabetes, the state managed to secure a lengthy sentence.

Representing the state, advocate Sizwe Khanyile said Cunningham failed to protect his daughters and raped them repeatedly.

In a statement from one of his daughters, which was read in court, she explained how this ordeal turned her into an aggressive person who always picks fights, especially with boys.

In the statement, she also mentioned she was robbed of her