A lenient Maseru Children’s Court this week temporarily reprieved a 79-year-old man accused of raping a 10-year-old girl, allowing him to await trial from the comfort of his home, owing to his advanced state of prostate cancer.
news
Nov. 9, 2022
LEMOHANG TŠEHLA
2 min read
Suspected rapist pays for young victim silence
Story highlights
Accused old man threatens to slit the girl’s throat with sword if she talks
Community alerted by the victim’s strange spending behaviour
This is despite the evidence that proves that Lebohang Kurate Ntšene of Ha Mampa bought the silence of his young victim with cash to the value of M121.
The court heard how Ntšene resorted to intimidation when he ran out of cash, threatening to slit the young girl’s throat with a sword if she squealed on him.
Notwithstanding the gravity of his alleged offence, the court decided to release Ntšene owing to his critical condition.
In its ruling, the court showed that although the severity of charges levelled against him warranted that he be remanded in custody, but the accused was not fit to await trial behind bars.
A radiologist report from the Makoanyane Military Hospital confirmed the ill health.
Ntšene is expected back in court on November 16 to stand trial.
The court heard how sometime in October this year Ntšene who is a neighbour of the victim’s parents invited the young girl into his goats’ pen and repeatedly raped her.
On one occasion the court was told, the accused paid M100 for the girl’s silence while on another instance he gave her M21.
On days when he had run out of cash, the evidence before the court shows that the accused threatened to slit his victim’s throat with a sword.
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It is further alleged that after the accused paid for her silence, the victim was seen by fellow villagers at a local grocery store buying some goodies, which she later shared with her friends.
Luck eventually ran out on the accused and when his victim was intensely questioned about her strange spending behaviour, she revealed the incessant rape, leading to Ntšene’s subsequent arrest by the community before he was handed over to the police.
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