A South African court has found a 38-year-old man guilty of 90 counts of rape. Most of his victims were children, the youngest of whom was nine years old, a prosecutor’s spokeswoman said on Tuesday. In some cases, he would rape multiple people at the same time, forcing other victims to watch him.
Last week, the 38-year-old pleaded guilty to 148 charges, including 90 counts of rape and more than 40 kidnappings. The defendant is said to have committed the crimes between 2012 and 2021 in and around Ekurhuleni near Johannesburg.
He was arrested in March last year after trying to return to the home of one of his victims. The sentence is expected to be announced in early December.
More recently, cases of rape have become known in South Africa. According to reports from Deutschlandfunk, there were an average of more than 100 registered cases per day at the beginning of the year. However, the number of unreported cases of rape is estimated to be very high. President Cyril Ramaphosa said last week that sex crimes should be considered the country’s biggest “pandemic” and that there is not a day without new reports of “horrific” crimes.
Sources: AFP, Deutschlandfunk, Weisser Ring, UN Women
