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The Pretoria North Magistrates’ Court has sentenced six relatives, including an elderly couple, to 16 life terms and 110 years of imprisonment on 20 counts of sexual offences including rape, indecent assault and child grooming against their minor children.
According to NPA spokesperson Lumka Mahanjana says the conviction stems from offences committed between 2005 and 2010.
She said a couple aged 70 and 69 years old was sentenced to 12 life terms and 95 years imprisonment for sexual offences of their minor foster children on Thursday.
Mahanjana says two other relatives, who are also a couple aged 43 and 49, have been sentenced to four life terms and 15 years of direct imprisonment.
While another couple, 39 and 49, who were also related to the minor kids, were sentenced to five years, wholly suspended, and three years of correctional supervision.
She says the group were collectively convicted of 20 counts of sexual offences against minor children aged between four and nine.
Mahanjana says some of the charges that they were convicted on included compelled rape and sexual assault, witnessing sexual acts, child abuse and neglect.
“This was discovered after the six-year-old foster child was taken for school readiness assessment where she disclosed to the educational psychologist that she was being sexually assaulted by her foster parents.”
She says the psychologist reported the matter to the police and during the investigation, it was found that the six accused were sexually assaulting their two foster children and their four biological children.
“In their victim impact statement, the children told the court that what happened to them has affected and continues to affect them, as they now find it hard to trust people and maintain relationships.”
In aggravation of sentence, state prosecutors Advocate Cornelia Harmzen and Marie Jonker told the court that the six showed no remorse for their actions.
They say the group betrayed the trust of their children and failed to protect them.
In his sentence, the magistrate Pieter Nel said the six committed serious offences against their children over a long period [and] such crimes will surely leave a long impact on the victims and therefore, the sentence given was appropriate.
Nel further ordered that they be added to the national register for sexual offenders and declared them unfit to possess a firearm.
Mahanjana says the NPA welcomes the sentence.
“We hope that it will send a strong message that such crimes will not be tolerated,” she added.
