The state has called for a life sentence for an 18-year-old Eastern Cape youth convicted of raping a 14-year-old mentally ill girl and raping and murdering a girl of 10.
Appearing in the Grahamstown High Court on Monday before Judge Cecil Somyalo was Lunga Tata, of Tyoksville, Bathurst. He was convicted last week of raping the mentally ill girl on May 31 last year and, four days later, on June 1, for the rape and murder of the 10-year-old.
Tata will be sentenced on Tuesday, and each of the crimes carries a life sentence, unless substantial and compelling circumstances can be found to impose a lesser sentence.
The trial court heard evidence that, after raping the 10-year-old girl, Tata had stabbed her three times in the chest and then slit her throat. Medical evidence led in court indicated the little girl had bled to death.
Tata, who was 17 at the time the crimes were committed, pleaded not guilty and tried to implicate another youth in the rape and murder.
Principal psychologist Ian Reid, of the maximum forensic unit at Fort England Psychiatric Hospital, told the court he had conducted a clinical assessment of the accused and ”could find no discernible symptoms of mental illness”.
”He [Tata] showed no emotion in regard to his circumstances or to the content of the questioning. His presentation was unremarkable and did not suggest the presence of mental illness.”
Clinical psychologist Karen Andrews said the rape of the mentally ill girl, who had been raped by another man in 2006, ”had simply overwhelmed her”.
”The experience of the girl being raped again has completely confused her emotionally, intellectually and sexually on all levels, to such an extent that she has been unable to process and react to the event beyond the acute phase of rape trauma syndrome, experienced during and immediately after the rape.”
Senior state advocate Nickie Turner said there were ”no mitigating circumstances whatsoever for the accused and the hideous crimes he had committed”. — Sapa