Maria Amakali

A former hostel caretaker, currently serving 68 years imprisonment for sexually violating 10 minor boys, is heading to the Supreme Court to appeal his conviction and sentence.

Yesterday, High Court judge Kobus Miller granted 53-year-old Mervin Nguyapeua leave to lodge his appeal with the Supreme Court. “I am of the view that a different court, provided with the same facts, might arrive at a different conclusion. Leave to appeal to the Supreme Court is granted,” said Miller. Nguyapeua sought leave to appeal, citing that the sentence imposed on him was too harsh, given his age. In addition, he claims the whole trial was procedurally unfair. 

Judge Alfred Siboleka convicted Nguyapeua on 32 counts of rape for having forced at least 10 boys between the ages of 13 and 15 to sodomise him after he stimulated their private parts. 

During the trial, witnesses testified that the first incident occurred during the second school term of 2013 when Nguyapeua allegedly raped a 14-year-old boy, and further sexually assaulted other boys in 2014, 2015 and in February 2016.

Nine of the boys allegedly raped by him were under the age of 16. Two of them were 13 years old at the time of the alleged incidents, six of them were 14, and one was 15. At the time of his sentencing, Siboleka said he took into account the fact that Nguyapeua had spent seven years in pre-trial custody and was a first offender. 

However, the judge said, he grossly and irreparably violated the children, shattering his official duty of care and diligence into small pieces. According to the judge, the seriousness of the offences lies in the fact that all the victims were primary school children between the ages of 13 to 17 at the time of the molestation. 

The fact that he showed the victims pornographic footage on his cell phone to entice them into the sexual acts, was aggravating. The court was thus of the view that exposing such young children to sexual intercourse footage is a dangerous contamination of their wellbeing and future.

Nguyapeua denied the rape acts to the end of his trial, and said he could not show remorse or apologise for something that he did not do.

-mamakali@nepc.com.na