Repeat rapist gets 45-year jail term

THE full force of the Combating of Rape Act descended on repeat rapist Gerhardus Bezuidenhout in the High Court in Windhoek yesterday.

Having been convicted on charges of abduction and rape on January 27, Bezuidenhout (31) heard yesterday that he was being sentenced to a total of 47 years’ imprisonment for those two crimes. With the two-year jail term that he received on the abduction charge ordered to run concurrently with a term of 45 years that Judge President Petrus Damaseb handed to Bezuidenhout on the rape charge, he has effectively been sentenced to 45 years’ imprisonment.Bezuidenhout is the first person to have been sentenced in the High Court to the mandatory minimum prison term of 45 years that the Combating of Rape Act of 2000 prescribes for someone who has a previous conviction for rape, and who had committed at least one of the rapes under certain “coercive circumstances” defined in the Act.In Bezuidenhout’s case, Judge President Damaseb had found him guilty on a charge that he had raped a 14-year-old girl repeatedly at Khorixas on July 19 2003.The Judge President also found that he had used a knife to threaten her into submission.The use of a firearm, or any other weapon, is included in the Combating of Rape Act’s definition of “coercive circumstances”.MAXIMUM JEOPARDY Once coercive circumstances are found to have been present, the prescribed minimum sentences in terms of the Act are increased.In such circumstances, a first offender is liable to be sentenced to not less than 10 years’ imprisonment, a repeat offender to no less than 20 years, and a repeat rapist convicted of rape with aggravating circumstances, which could include the use of a weapon, to a minimum term of 45 years’ imprisonment.Bezuidenhout’s crimes at Khorixas on July 19 2003 placed him in the last category of maximum jeopardy.He was accused, and convicted in spite of his denial of guilt, of abducting the 14-year-old girl during the early morning hours while she was on her way home from a club at the town.While threatening her with a knife, the court heard during his trial, Bezuidenhout raped her three times on the way to his home.He forced her to spend the night at his house, and again raped her three times at the house, the court found.After the Judge President had found Bezuidenhout guilty, the court heard that Bezuidenhout had also been found guilty in the Otjiwarongo Regional Court on a charge of rape in June 1995.He was sentenced to an eight-year jail term for that crime, which was committed when he was 19 years old.Bezuidenhout was released from prison in July 2001.The crime that he was accused of in the High Court, was committed only two years after that, the Judge President noted yesterday.SENTENCE JUSTIFIED “The passage of time between his release and the commission of the present offence is therefore very short, showing that he did not learn a lesson,” Judge President Damaseb commented.He said he could find no substantial and compelling circumstances in Bezuidenhout’s case that would have entitled the court to impose a lighter sentence than that prescribed by the Act.The result, the Judge President also noted, is that Bezuidenhout “will be a very old man by the time he had served the minimum sentence required by law”.After Bezuidenhout had been convicted, the Judge President asked State Advocate Trudie de Villiers and defence counsel Ivo dos Santos to give the court their views on the question whether Bezuidenhout’s previous conviction for rape could still be taken into account although it was older than ten years – a question that could also be in play when other courts have to sentence repeat rapists.In terms of the common law applicable in Namibia, a court can disregard a previous conviction which is older than ten years.INFLEXIBLE RULE That is not a firm, inflexible rule, though, Judge President Damaseb pointed out: “The common law does not postulate that a previous conviction of 10 years or older must in all circumstances be disregarded.In an appropriate case it may in fact be an aggravating factor.The common law, therefore, does not suggest that a previous conviction which is 10 years or older, should always not count as a previous conviction.”Under the Combating of Rape Act, a court has no option but to take a previous conviction into account, he found, laying down a guideline that other courts may have to follow when dealing with similar rape cases: “Once a previous conviction of rape is proved, and there are coercive circumstances, it triggers the minimum sentence provision; the court is not at liberty to consider whether, because of its age, the previous conviction of rape should be disregarded – and in that way avoid imposing the minimum sentence.That would do violence to the clear and unambiguous language of the Act.”For Bezuidenhout, an unmarried father of two children who was unemployed at the time of the offences, the implication of this finding is severe.It is a matter of 45 years locked up in prison, which is the reality now facing him.With the two-year jail term that he received on the abduction charge ordered to run concurrently with a term of 45 years that Judge President Petrus Damaseb handed to Bezuidenhout on the rape charge, he has effectively been sentenced to 45 years’ imprisonment.Bezuidenhout is the first person to have been sentenced in the High Court to the mandatory minimum prison term of 45 years that the Combating of Rape Act of 2000 prescribes for someone who has a previous conviction for rape, and who had committed at least one of the rapes under certain “coercive circumstances” defined in the Act.In Bezuidenhout’s case, Judge President Damaseb had found him guilty on a charge that he had raped a 14-year-old girl repeatedly at Khorixas on July 19 2003.The Judge President also found that he had used a knife to threaten her into submission. The use of a firearm, or any other weapon, is included in the Combating of Rape Act’s definition of “coercive circumstances”.MAXIMUM JEOPARDY Once coercive circumstances are found to have been present, the prescribed minimum sentences in terms of the Act are increased.In such circumstances, a first offender is liable to be sentenced to not less than 10 years’ imprisonment, a repeat offender to no less than 20 years, and a repeat rapist convicted of rape with aggravating circumstances, which could include the use of a weapon, to a minimum term of 45 years’ imprisonment.Bezuidenhout’s crimes at Khorixas on July 19 2003 placed him in the last category of maximum jeopardy.He was accused, and convicted in spite of his denial of guilt, of abducting the 14-year-old girl during the early morning hours while she was on her way home from a club at the town.While threatening her with a knife, the court heard during his trial, Bezuidenhout raped her three times on the way to his home.He forced her to spend the night at his house, and again raped her three times at the house, the court found.After the Judge President had found Bezuidenhout guilty, the court heard that Bezuidenhout had also been found guilty in the Otjiwarongo Regional Court on a charge of rape in June 1995.He was sentenced to an eight-year jail term for that crime, which was committed when he was 19 years old.Bezuidenhout was released from prison in July 2001.The crime that he was accused of in the High Court, was committed only two years after that, the Judge President noted yesterday.SENTENCE JUSTIFIED “The passage of time between his release and the commission of the present offence is therefore very short, showing that he did not learn a lesson,” Judge President Damaseb commented.He said he could find no substantial and compelling circumstances in Bezuidenhout’s case that would have entitled the court to impose a lighter sentence than that prescribed by the Act.The result, the Judge President also noted, is that Bezuidenhout “will be a very old man by the time he had served the minimum sentence required by law”.After Bezuidenhout had been convicted, the Judge President asked State Advocate Trudie de Villiers and defence counsel Ivo dos Santos to give the court their views on the question whether Bezuidenhout’s previous conviction for rape could still be taken into account although it was older than ten years – a question that could also be in play when other courts have to sentence repeat rapists.In terms of the common law applicable in Namibia, a court can disregard a previous conviction which is older than ten years.INFLEXIBLE RULE That is not a firm, inflexible rule, though, Judge President Damaseb pointed out: “The common law does not postulate that a previous conviction of 10 years or older must in all circumstances be disregarded.In an appropriate case it may in fact be an aggravating factor.The common law, therefore, does not suggest that a previous conviction which is 10 years or older, should always not count as a previous conviction.”Under the Combating of Rape Act, a court has no option but to take a previous conviction into account, he found, laying down a guideline that other courts may have to follow when dealing with similar rape cases: “Once a previous conviction of rape is proved, and there are coercive circumstances, it triggers the minimum sentence provision; the court is not at liberty to consider whether, because of its age, the previous conviction of rape should be disregarded – and in that way avoid imposing the minimum sentence.That would do violence to the clear and unambiguous language of the Act.”For Bezuidenhout, an unmarried father of two children who was unemployed at the time of the offences, the implication of this finding is severe.It is a matter of 45 years locked up in prison, which is the reality now facing him.