Three of the four men who raped and murdered schoolgirl Thato Radebe were on Tuesday each sentenced to 35 years behind bars, the Star reported.
Stanley Masemola, Thabiso Zweli Ganta and Mandla Mtshali were sentenced to 25 years each for murder and another 25 years for rape.
Johannesburg High Court Judge Lucy Mailula ordered that 15 of the 25 years for rape run concurrently with the murder sentences.
The fourth accused, Themba Mndaweni (19) pleaded guilty to the crimes earlier this month and was sentenced to 15 years’ jail.
”She was brutally raped, her head was crushed and she was strangled and stabbed with bottles in the most gruesome manner of killing I’ve ever seen in my life,” Mailula was quoted as saying.
”Does the 25-year sentence begin to address the gravity of the offences?” she asked.
The 14-year-old Bedfordview High School pupil’s body was found by a passer-by in the veld next to the Emndeni Library in Soweto in February 2007. She had been raped, stabbed and stoned to death. She was still wearing her school uniform.
Mailula continued: ”She was killed and left behind in an undignified manner. She was humiliated enough by being raped. There was no need to kill her. Not only was she strangled, her skull was crushed. She had
bad stab wounds to her head and neck.
”It was a brutal and gruesome murder. It was totally senseless.”
Police found her underwear, three empty beer bottles, bloodied stones and two used government-issue condoms and their wrappers next to her body, the paper reported. – Sapa