Pretoria - The man convicted of raping two minor girls will know his fate on December 6.
During the final day of sentencing in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court, State prosecutor advocate Dru Ramsamy said “a mistake can be falling or failing to remember to lock the door when drunk”.
He said taking advantage of and brutally raping two minors could never be regarded as a mistake.
Amos Khumalo, 46, has been convicted for the rape and the attempted rape of two girls aged 11 and 13.
In pleading for no deviation from the prescribed minimum sentences for the offences, Ramsamy asked the courts to consider the impact the incident had on the minors, including how the children had to undergo three different counselling sessions to help them learn how to cope with life again.
The state further implored the court to take into account how Khumalo ripped away the innocence of the children and from the victim’s own account, made her afraid of boys, scared for her younger sister’s safety, and left her struggling to sleep or speak months afterwards.
“These children were forced to grow up faster than they had to because he decided to take their innocence away.
“By his own confession, he says he knew what he was doing despite having consumed alcohol. He can say that he regrets sleeping with minors and that it was a stupid mistake, but a stupid mistake when you’re drunk is falling or failing to lock the door.
“It is not booking a hotel room and waking up with blood on your penis, only to justify the behaviour as being due to having consumed alcohol, in order to minimise the violent nature of the crime itself.”
Ramsamy said the act of an adult penis penetrating a child should in any circumstance be equated to a gross violation and a violent act.
Furthermore, considering how one in five women was being raped every six minutes in South Africa, Ramsamy said should the court continue to deviate from the minimum sentences, there would continue to be instances where people like Khumalo were out on parole committing more crimes.
As it stands, she added that Khumalo, who she regarded as a “predator”, had now attacked and changed the lives of three people as he had a previous conviction of rape.
In requesting a more lenient sentence, defence counsel for Khumalo, advocate Anton Rudman, asked the courts to consider that the accused had from the onset of the trial made it known that he wanted to plead guilty to the offences.
Rudman said instead of Khumalo insisting on pleading his innocence even before the DNA results were handed in, the accused admitted his fault as he wanted to spare the children further pain of having to take the stand to testify in the matter.
Khumalo, through his defence counsel, told the court that he had a good relationship with his family and children, but that his behaviour sometimes changed when he was under the influence of alcohol.
He told the courts that he accepted responsibility for sleeping with minors and it was a stupid mistake he made as he was under the influence of alcohol.
According to initial reports, Khumalo forcefully took the two minors from Lotus Gardens in Atteridgeville to a liquor outlet in Pretoria West in November 2020.
He proceeded to the Pretoria Hotel where he raped the two girls.
The children were eventually rescued after the younger victim managed to escape and alerted people who were in the hotel for help.
A video of the blood-stained Khumalo slumped in a chair being questioned by the hotel staff regarding his actions also went viral on the day of the incident.
Pretoria News