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Namibia: Suspect Admits Raping Woman (77)
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The Namibian (Windhoek)
25 April 2008
Posted to the web 25 April 2008
Werner Menges
Windhoek
A 23-year-old resident of northern Namibia admitted in the High Court in Windhoek yesterday that he had raped and sodomised a 77-year-old woman in a night-time attack in the Ondangwa area near the end of last year.
"I did it while I was drunk," was the only explanation Luciana Ndjaba Augustus offered for his behaviour when he first pleaded guilty to a charge of rape during an appearance in the Ondangwa Magistrate's Court in November last year.
Augustus again pleaded guilty to one count of rape when his trial started before Acting Judge Hosea Angula in the High Court yesterday.
Augustus's victim had left her home at a village in the Ondangwa area during the night between November 13 and 14 2007 in a bid to find a safe haven for the night, after her son had threatened to beat her up that evening, according to the indictment that Augustus is facing.
The woman was still on her way to her daughter's house when she encountered Augustus and a companion.
After exchanging greetings with his companion, she continued on her way.
Then, however, Augustus started following her, it was alleged.
He caught up with her, told her she had to choose between death and having sexual intercourse with him, and then pushed her to the ground, where he raped and sodomised her, it was charged.
In a plea explanation handed to the court, Augustus admitted that he had raped and sodomised the complainant.
He also admitted that he did not have her consent to have sexual intercourse with her, and that he knew what he was doing was wrong and that he was committing an offence for which he could be punished.
Based on his plea, Acting Judge Angula convicted Augustus as charged.
The woman who was raped by Augustus is a widowed mother of seven children.
Now aged 78, she was called to the witness stand by State advocate Ruben Shileka yesterday to give evidence in aggravation of his sentence against Augustus.
She told the court that the incident - in which she was raped by a man who is younger than her youngest child - had a severe effect on her.
She was trying to console herself by reading her Bible, she said.
She had not forgiven Augustus, she added.
She did not even want to look Augustus in the face, she told the court.
He should be sentenced to as much as 45 years' imprisonment so that she can get peace for her soul, she said.
Shileka is expected to call a doctor who examined the complainant after the incident to testify when the trial is scheduled to continue on Monday.
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Augustus, who remains in Police custody, is represented by Werner Janse van Rensburg.
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