File
The Western Cape High Court has confirmed the life sentence imposed on 45-year-old Albro McLean following his conviction on “corrective rape”.
The National Prosecuting Authority said it welcomed the recent decision by the Deputy Judge President, Patricia Goliath, to dismiss McLean’s appeal.
NPA spokesperson, Eric Ntabazalila, said the presiding officers, including Pangarkar AJ, “heeded the call by the state” to address the controversial issue of “corrective rape” as a hate crime and serious form of gender-based violence.
He said McLean raped the complainant, a neighbour, on 28 August 2017 and pleaded not guilty to charges of rape and assault with aggravating circumstances at the Wynberg Regional Court on 15 March 2019.
“This is despite his DNA profile found on a sample collected from her cervix,” he said.
Ntabazalila said during his appeal, McLean’s argued that the life sentence was disproportionate to the offence and that the court overemphasised the seriousness of the offence at the expense of the personal circumstances of the accused.
However, he said State Advocate, Liezel Scholzel dismissed this, saying rape is a very serious offence constituting, as it does, a humiliating, degrading and brutal invasion of privacy, dignity and the person of the victim.
“It is regarded as a cancer within the society. Not only did the appellant rape the complainant, but he did so with a further motive and out of prejudice that he had against her sexual orientation, causing further serious emotional trauma to the complainant,” she said.
