WINDHOEK – A 34-year-old man who was not satisfied with an 18-year sentence he received got his wish for an appeal. After Judges of Appeal Nate Ndauendapo and Christi Liebenberg granted Verikuye Kapuire leave to appeal, they warned him that he could face an increased sentence, but he decided to forge ahead.
He was initially sentenced to a combined 18 years for rape and assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm in the Windhoek Regional Court. He got 17 years for rape and one year for assault to cause GBV, to run consecutively.
Kapuire was convicted of raping a then 80-year-old woman who asked for his assistance to remove a snake from her yard. Kapuire who was 29 years old at the time proceeded to violate the elderly woman in her own home, the court found. Judges Ndauendapo and Liebenberg said the evidence of the State supported the conviction.
According to the evidence adduced, after the complainant asked Kapuire to search for the snake, she went into the house to fetch some meat to give him for his troubles. However, when she presented the meat to him, he took it but then hit her in the chest and told her to walk to her bedroom. Kapuire told the old lady to remove her pants and he raped her.
During her ordeal she pleaded with Kapuire to leave her alone and when he finished, she was full of blood, the judges stated.
They further said that after he finished violating the elderly complainant he demanded money from her and when she did not give him any he demanded her Bob card.
According to Judge Ndauendapo who wrote the judgment, Kapuire slapped his victim all over her face while he demanded the pin number of her card, and held a knife to her throat.
The judges said they could not find fault with the trial magistrate’s finding that Kapuire’s version that the old woman invited him to have sex with her in exchange for N$50 held no truth at all.
If that was the case, the judges remarked, “why was it so painful that she sustained bruises and bleeding on her vagina?” they asked.
On sentencing, the judges said that while a court of appeal would not interfere with the discretion of a trial court, in the present case the sentence was totally out of proportion to the gravity and magnitude of the offence.
“The assault was of great proportions, the injuries show reported and sustained blows to the complainant’s person,” the judges quoted the trial magistrate, Dinah Usiku. According to Judge Ndauendapo the message sent out with the sentence of one year for the assault conviction does not convey to society that the courts will deal severely with those who commit violence against women. The sentence imposed was therefore disturbingly lenient and could not be allowed to stand, the judges stated and replaced the one-year sentence with one of three years and ordered that the sentence must commence after the completion of the 17-year sentence for rape.