File picture: Joggie, Pixabay
A 32-YEAR-old man who preyed on women coming to pay their respects to loved ones at a cemetery has been handed down four life terms.
The Gauteng High Court also sentenced Thabang Victor Rampai to an additional 15 years.
Judge Cassim Ismail Moosa furtehr ordered that the accused’s name be entered into the National Register for Sex Offenders and deemed him unfit to possess a firearm.
Between May 2016 and March 2018, Rampai would hide in the Roodepoort cemetery and pounce on women who were visiting the graves of loved ones.
National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Phindi Mjonondwane said he would grab the women by their necks and force them to the ground.
“He would then instruct them to undress and rape them. In one incident that happened on 10 March 2018, the victim was cleaning her late-husband’s grave when he grabbed her from behind and stabbed her with a screwdriver, demanding her cellphone, raped her and fled the scene,” Mjonondwane said.
During court proceedings, State advocate Makwena Mokwatedi argued that the accused pleaded guilty to all the charges because the evidence against him was overwhelming.
She said the accused could not dispute the DNA evidence that linked him to all previously unsolved cases of women who were robbed and raped in the Roodepoort graveyard.
She added that the court must never allow perpetrators, such as the offender, to create an environment of terror and insecurity in the minds of innocent citizens, and should remove them from society.