A man found guilty of abducting and attempting to rape a five-year-old girl in Windhoek at the end of 2020 has been sentenced to an effective prison term of 15 years.
Although the girl that Aloys Sipapo tried to rape was not physically injured by him and was detained by him for only a short period of time, those facts do not warrant a deviation from a prescribed sentence of at least 15 years' imprisonment as stipulated by the Combating of Rape Act, magistrate Esme Molefe said during Sipapo's sentencing in the Windhoek Regional Court on Friday.
Molefe sentenced Sipapo (39) to a prison term of 15 years on a charge of attempted rape.
On a count of abduction, Sipapo was sentenced to a jail term of one year, which is to be served concurrently with the sentence for attempted rape.
Sipapo was employed as a security guard in Windhoek before he was found guilty on the two charges last Wednesday.
He was accused of abducting and raping a girl aged five in the Okuryangava area of Windhoek on 30 December 2020.
Sipapo denied guilt on the two charges when his trial commenced in June this year.
During his trial, an aunt of the girl alleged to have been raped testified that her daughter told her the girl had gone into Sipapo's shack, which was next to the witness' house.
She said she sent her daughter to call the girl out of the room, but was told there was no response from inside.
The witness related that she went to Sipapo's room and called his name, but also received no response.
When she peeked into the room, she saw the girl's sandals, she said.
The witness then used an axe to break down the door.
Sipapo was found naked in the room.
The girl's aunt said she asked him where her niece was, and he said she had gone out of the room. However, the witness found the girl lying under a blanket on Sipapo's bed.
The witness also told the court that Sipapo grabbed a pair of boxer shorts and ran away after the girl had been found in his room.
According to the witness, the girl told her five days later that Sipapo had called her into his room, where he undressed her.
The girl also testified during Sipapo's trial.
She told the court he called her to his room, telling her he had sweets for her, while she was playing outside.
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Once she was in his room, he told her not to be scared, locked the door and undressed her, before he took off his clothes as well, she said.
Sipapo told her to keep quiet and said he would give her sweets and chips when she heard her cousin calling her name outside, she recounted.
He also dressed her before her aunt broke down the door of his room with an axe, she said.
Sipapo told the court he and a woman with whom he had a relationship had intercourse in his room while the girl was playing in a sitting area in his shack, before the girl's aunt broke his door open and found the child inside.
Three witnesses told the court that the woman Sipapo claimed was with him in his room was not there when the girl's aunt entered his room and found him naked.
Molefe concluded that the girl's version of events was more probable than Sipapo's, and that the state proved he had abducted and tried to rape the girl.
Sipapo was represented by defence lawyers Theo Carolus and Vernon Lutibezi during his trial.
Public prosecutor Emma Mayavero represented the state.
