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Monday, January 28, 2008 - Web posted at 10:22:39 GMT Cemetery attacker's appeal thrown out WERNER MENGESAN appeal by a former security guard who is serving a 37-year prison term for raping and attempting to murder a woman at Windhoek's Pionierspark Cemetery five years ago ended in failure in the High Court in Windhoek last week. |
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So unconvinced were Acting Judges John Manyarara and Hosea Angula by the grounds on which Adolf Kahoro was basing his appeal against the sentences that he received in the Windhoek Regional Court on September 17 2004 that they did not even want to hear any oral arguments from State advocate Andrew Muvirimi before they gave their ruling on Kahoro's appeal on Thursday. "We are satisfied there are no merits in this appeal, and it is dismissed in its totality," Acting Judge Manyarara told Kahoro, with Acting Judge Angula agreeing with this judgement. Kahoro (28) pleaded guilty to charges of rape and theft of a motor vehicle when his trial started before Magistrate Ben Myburgh in the Windhoek Regional Court on July 30 2004. He admitted that on January 21 2003, when he was on duty as a security guard at the Pionierspark Cemetery, he attacked a woman who visited the cemetery. He held her at gunpoint, raped her, and then left the cemetery in her vehicle. The woman was shot in the neck after being raped. Kahoro claimed that the shooting was accidental, but this claim was rejected and he was convicted of attempted murder as well. Magistrate Myburgh sentenced him to 20 years' imprisonment on the rape charge, a 10-year jail term for attempted murder, and a 12-year term for the car theft. Five years of the sentence on the attempted murder count were ordered to be served concurrently with the sentence on the rape charge. The effect of this was that Kahoro was sentenced to a 37-year prison term. Norman Tjombe, who at the request of the court appeared on Kahoro's behalf in the appeal, readily conceded on Thursday that Kahoro had been convicted of "horrible" crimes. "It was a horrible rape case. The person was left for dead after being shot in the neck," Tjombe said. "It was certainly a horrible crime he committed, and 20 years' imprisonment for the rape wouldn't seem to be outrageous," he said. With the cumulative effect of the sentences translating into an effective term of imprisonment of 37 years, a 15-year jail term on the rape charge - the minimum term prescribed for this sort of crime in the Combating of Rape Act - may have been more appropriate, though, Tjombe argued. On a question from Acting Judge Angula, Tjombe however conceded that the sentences that Kahoro received could not be regarded as shocking. The court evidently agreed. Kahoro is scheduled to return to court - but this time to the Windhoek Magistrate's Court - on February 19. That appearance will be in a case in which he has been convicted of possessing 55 grams of cannabis, valued at N$165, in Windhoek on September 9 last year. In Kahoro's trial on that charge, Magistrate Uaatjo Uanivi heard that warders at Windhoek Central Prison acted on information that Kahoro had unauthorised material in his possession on the day in question. When nothing was found after Kahoro had been body-searched, he was taken to a hospital for X-rays to be taken. An X-ray revealed that he had an object hidden in his rectum. Kahoro then removed the object, and it was found to be dagga wrapped up in plastic, the Magistrate heard. Kahoro claimed that he actually had a cellphone hidden in his rectum, but having heard evidence from several witnesses who told the court that it was dagga that had been retrieved from that hiding place, Magistrate Uanivi convicted him of being in possession of cannabis. His case was postponed to February 19 so that the prosecution can provide the court with a record of his previous convictions before he is sentenced. |
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