A MAN involved in the alleged rape and assault of a 94-year-old woman in 2008 was recently acquitted in the Ramsgate High Court.
His co-accused has already been sentenced to life imprisonment for rape and 15 years’ imprisonment for robbery.
The court found the evidence against the second man to be insufficient, or unsatisfactory, and he was let off.
He had faced charges of housebreaking with intent to rob, and robbery with aggravating circumstances, rape and attempted murder.
The court heard that the woman had been asleep when the two men entered her house. One of the men approached her bed and pulled up her nightdress.
When she resisted, the two men overpowered her and one of them raped her. A knife was held to the old woman’s throat and she was struck with a walking stick.
The men demanded money. They searched under the mattress and found only R3. They left with the money, a chicken and some eggs.
As they were leaving they set blanket in the room alight and secured the bedroom door from the outside.
The elderly woman, who lived alone in Thelawayeka location in Paddock at the time of the incident, died last year.
