THE State has received leave from the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein to appeal against the 7-year sentence imposed by Western Cape Judge John Foxcroft on a 54-year-old Elsies River man who raped his 14-year-old daughter. The sentence was described as ”shockingly inappropriate” by provincial Director of Public Prosecutions, Frank Kahn. It caused widespread public anger. After Foxcroft made a formal finding of guilty, he said the accused posed no real danger to society as his ”sexual deviancy had been limited to his own family.” It is the State’s contention that any person who is manifestly capable of raping his own daughter must be seen as being at least as capable of raping the daughter of someone else.