Farmworker gets 15 years for rape

A 42-year-old herdsman has been sentenced to 15 years in jail by the High Court at Keetmanshoop for the knife-point rape of a teenage girl.

When his trial started last week, Fritz Kooper admitted raping the girl, who was 17 at the time of the offence. Kooper also faced a charge of assault, but in exchange for a guilty plea on the rape charge he tendered after the teenage girl was tested under cross-examination, the prosecution dropped the assault charge against him.The girl was under cross-examination for about half a day.The rape took place at the Maltahoehe and Mariental intersection on the B1 road near the farm Vaalpomp in the Mariental District on February 11 2005.Before the rape, Kooper allegedly sent a message to the girl to meet at the dam on the farm, but the girl rejected the invitation, the court earlier heard.The move by Kooper was allegedly aimed at proposing a romantic relationship between him and the girl, the Court also heard.’HUMILIATED’ Passing sentence, Judge Kato Van Niekerk agreed with State Prosecutor Ed Marondedze that there were no circumstances warranting a lesser sentence than that prescribed by the Combating of Rape Act.Defence Counsel Stefan Coetzee had requested a sentence less than the prescribed minimum sentence.However, Coetzee did not submit any substantial and compelling circumstances that could warrants a lesser sentence, Judge Van Niekerk ruled.The Judge remarked that Kooper, a father of a 16-year-old boy and a widower, should have acted maturely and rather have protected the girl instead of causing harm to her.”It appears that the accused either did not accept the answer he received to his message or he realised that the complainant was not interested in being intimately involved with him,” she said.Judge Van Niekerk also noted that the girl was humiliated under cross-examination, when it was put to her by the defence counsel that she had fabricated parts of the evidence.It was also put to the girl that she and Kooper had a love relationship.”I agree that it must be disconcerting and odious to be confronted by such allegations in a matter where an unlawful sexual act is concerned and where the actual truth is in fact that the complainant had no wish to all to be intimately involved with the accused, who she considered to be too old for her, and who she asked to leave her alone,” Judge van Niekerk said in her verdict.Kooper also faced a charge of assault, but in exchange for a guilty plea on the rape charge he tendered after the teenage girl was tested under cross-examination, the prosecution dropped the assault charge against him.The girl was under cross-examination for about half a day.The rape took place at the Maltahoehe and Mariental intersection on the B1 road near the farm Vaalpomp in the Mariental District on February 11 2005.Before the rape, Kooper allegedly sent a message to the girl to meet at the dam on the farm, but the girl rejected the invitation, the court earlier heard.The move by Kooper was allegedly aimed at proposing a romantic relationship between him and the girl, the Court also heard.’HUMILIATED’ Passing sentence, Judge Kato Van Niekerk agreed with State Prosecutor Ed Marondedze that there were no circumstances warranting a lesser sentence than that prescribed by the Combating of Rape Act.Defence Counsel Stefan Coetzee had requested a sentence less than the prescribed minimum sentence.However, Coetzee did not submit any substantial and compelling circumstances that could warrants a lesser sentence, Judge Van Niekerk ruled.The Judge remarked that Kooper, a father of a 16-year-old boy and a widower, should have acted maturely and rather have protected the girl instead of causing harm to her.”It appears that the accused either did not accept the answer he received to his message or he realised that the complainant was not interested in being intimately involved with him,” she said.Judge Van Niekerk also noted that the girl was humiliated under cross-examination, when it was put to her by the defence counsel that she had fabricated parts of the evidence.It was also put to the girl that she and Kooper had a love relationship.”I agree that it must be disconcerting and odious to be confronted by such allegations in a matter where an unlawful sexual act is concerned and where the actual truth is in fact that the complainant had no wish to all to be intimately involved with the accused, who she considered to be too old for her, and who she asked to leave her alone,” Judge van Niekerk said in her verdict.