The accused was sentenced to five terms of life and 30 years imprisonmen.t. Picture: iStock
A 34-year-old priest has been sentenced to life in prison for multiple rapes of three teenagers in KwaZulu-Natal.
The man of the cloth, who has not been named, appeared in the Nquthu Regional Court on Monday where the sentence was handed down.
National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) spokesperson Natasha Ramkisson-Kara said the accused committed the multiple rapes in the Mondlo area between October 2020 and August 2022.
“The accused was a priest and traditional healer in the area, and he met all three of the complainants at a church service, on separate occasions.”
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Ramkisson-Kara said the man informed the victims parents that they (the complainants aged, 15, 17 and 18) were “bewitched and needed cleansing”.
“He told them that only he would be able to cleanse them. When the complainants were taken to his home, he told the parents to leave them there. The accused employed the same modus operandi with all three complainants in that he would tell them they needed to have sexual intercourse with him to be healed.
“Before raping them, he made them smoke snuff, then rubbed them with a ‘muthi’ all over their bodies. He told them they would not be healed if they told anyone what he had done. He raped two of the complainants more than once,” Ramkisson-Kara said.
Ramkisson-Kara said the priest’s sinister actions came to light when one of the complainants reported the matter to the police.
She said this resulted in the other two complainants coming forward.
“In her statement the one complainant said the incident caused her much trauma because she had been raped several times by the accused. She also said that she had trusted him as he was a member of their church. Another complainant said the incident traumatised her to the extent that she had to leave school. She said she could not concentrate at school.
“The accused was sentenced to five terms of life and 30 years imprisonment. The court ordered that his name be added into the National Register for Sex Offenders, and he was declared unfit to possess a firearm.”
The sentences will run concurrently.
The NPA has welcomed the prosecution and commend the work done by the prosecution and police.
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