Mpilo Mseleku (26) was sentenced in the Port Shepstone Regional Magistrate’s Court on Monday this week to life imprisonment for the rape of an 80-year-old mentally challenged woman from Betania.
He was further handed five years’ imprisonment for housebreaking with intent to rape, and was also declared unfit to possess a firearm.
On the day of the incident (January 27), the woman had been at home with a caregiver, herself a pensioner.
The caregiver needed to go to the store to purchase some items and Mseleku took this opportunity to break in through a window.
The court heard that he brutally assaulted the mentally challenged woman and then raped her.
The caregiver suddenly arrived and Mseleku fled when the caregiver returned unexpectedly and in the process he left behind a vital piece of evidence – his underpants.
Police spokesman Petros Mpinge said police wasted no time in making an arrest and obtaining DNA evidence which positively linked him to the rape.
Ugu District Commissioner Major General Sethenya Nxamagele said she was extremely pleased with sentence.
“Rapists deserve the harshest sentences that can be meted out. Their crime destroys the soul of their victims. It is especially upsetting when the victims are children, the elderly and the vulnerable.”
The investigating officer was Sergeant Beatus Cele of the Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences Unit (FCS) Port Shepstone.
HAVE YOUR SAY
Like the South Coast Herald’s Facebook page, follow us on Twitter and Instagram
