JAIL FOR BABY RAPIST

The Musina teenager who admitted in the regional court that he raped his 14-month-old cousin last year, was sentenced to seven years imprisonment on Friday.
After the incident the strongly built teenager first said his cousin “fell” when he carried the stunned toddler back to the house in an area known as Blikkiesdorp where the family had gathered for a party. She was taken to the Musina Hospital where doctors examined her.

Medical evidence before court explained in detail the severity of the girl’s injuries. She was transferred to the Polokwane Provincial Hospital where she received the first of several reconstructive surgeries. She was discharged ten days later but when her mother failed to bring her back for follow-up medical care, social workers placed both the girl and her eight-year-old sister in foster care, where they still remain. The victim underwent her last reconstructive surgery last month.
When members of the child protection unit visited the family home in Musina, the teenager told the investigating officer, inspector Masiwa Dzagama, that he used his finger to penetrate the girl.
The teenager’s mother handed the girl’s underwear and a bloodied T-shirt to the police. DNA tests later determined that the teenager ejaculated in the girl.

Only then did he admit that he raped her.
The teenager admitted to taking the little girl from the plastic blow-up pool where she was playing while the older people were partying, to an abandoned house where he committed the deeds with her.
He claimed he remembered nothing of the actual rape. He did admit that he had been drunk that evening and that he had been drinking and smoking with his mother and her friends since the age of ten.
Social worker Milanzi Sainabu testified that the house in Blikkiesdorp was extremely dirty and smelly.
State prosecutor Hilke van Rensburg said the boy needed structure in his life and that a jail sentence will do him good. “In this time, he might finish his schooling, learn a trade and then become a useful member of  society when he is released.”

People who have dealt with his family over the years described them as “completely dysfunctional. He was never exposed to any boundaries and routine”.
Once the sentencing was handed down, the teenager, who did spill a few tears earlier, appeared unperturbed and almost joyfully walked to the holding cells with the court orderlies to start his prison sentence.

Northern Review - http://www.northernmedia.co.za/?q=node/10355