Cape Town – An Upington man has been sentenced to 22 years direct imprisonment for housebreaking and rape.
The man had raped the woman he found taking a shower inside the house he had broken into.
He was sentenced at the Upington Regional Court on Monday.
The NPA said the incident happened on January 24, 2021, during the early hours of the morning. They said Floors Johannes Matthys, 35, broke into the house of a 59-year-old woman, where he stole cash he found and continued to search for more items to steal.
The accused proceeded to the second storey of the house, where he found the victim busy taking a shower before he grabbed and pulled her out of the shower.
A struggle ensued between the victim and the accused with the victim getting injured in the process.
"Unfortunately, the accused managed to overcome the victim and raped her before fleeing the scene," NPA regional spokesperson Mojalefa Senokoatsane said.
Senokoatsane said the victim reported the matter to the police and a facial sketch was compiled and circulated by the police.
"In the meantime, the accused continued with his crime spree, breaking into houses, and stealing from other victims.
"A photo of the accused was circulated on social media whereby the rape victim saw it and identified him as the person who raped her.
"The accused was also linked with positive DNA results as being the rapist," Senokoatsane said.
In aggravation of sentence, Prosecutor advocate Madeleen De Kock argued that the court should add 5 years imprisonment to the minimum sentence, as the count of rape is the only count that carried a minimum sentence which was by then, 10 years imprisonment.
"The Prosecutor also handed in a victim impact statement of the rape victim as well as an impact statement of the victim's daughter.
"The court ultimately imposed direct imprisonment of 15 years on the count of rape," Senokoatsane said.
Senokoatsane further added that the court further imposed direct imprisonment of 4 years, 5 years, 6 years, 6 years, and 7 years on the 5 charges of housebreaking.
"It was ordered that all the housebreaking sentences were to run concurrently but not to run concurrently with the count of rape," Senokoatsane added.
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