Windhoek High Court Judge Dinnah Usiku yesterday sentenced a now 17-year-old from Rehoboth to an effective 16 years in jail.
The judge convicted the teenager, who admitted he killed a 57-year-old woman by stoning her to death, when he was only 14, on charges of murder, rape, violating a dead human body and two counts of theft in February this year.
On the murder count, he was sentenced to 10 years, four years on the rape count, 12 months each on the theft and violating a dead human body counts, respectively, and two years each on the arson counts.
She, however, ordered that the sentences on the theft, violating a dead human body and one of the arson counts run concurrently with the other arson count, leaving him with 16 years in total.
The youngster, who cannot be named because of his age, was convicted on his own admission for the murder of Sarah Jagger during the period 24 to 25 September 2018 near Bahnhoff station in the Rehoboth district.
According to the summary of substantial facts in the indictment, the accused attacked the victim, who was alone and walking on a gravel road from Bahnhoff station to farm Aoxas, and dragged her a distance away from the road.
He then undressed the victim while kicking her, and hitting her with stones – in the process fracturing her skull and ribs, and then raped her at least two times, it is alleged.
The victim died on the scene due to blunt impact head and chest injuries, the indictment states.
It was further stated that the youngster then robbed the victim of her bag and cut off or amputated her foot, put it in a plastic bag and threw it on a gravel road.
He also proceeded to stab or cut the body of the victim with a knife or other sharp object.
He also broke into a zinc house at farm Aoxas and stole several items, whereafter he set the shack and another one on the farm alight.
“The accused’s crimes can only be described as horrendous. He killed the deceased and went on to violate her dead body by amputating her right foot. As if that was not sufficient, he also committed a sexual act with her,” the judge said.
“For these serious crimes, the accused cannot be allowed to get away just because of his age. I, therefore, will not attach too much weight about his personal circumstances and totally ignore the gravity of his crimes.”
According to her, the accused, in as much as he was a juvenile at the time of the commission of these offences, for sure acted as a common adult criminal – and as such he cannot escape terms of imprisonment.
She went on to say even the community in which he lived prior to his arrest is not ready to accept because the crimes he is convicted of are of a very serious nature – and as such, he must pay for his crimes by serving a reasonable period of imprisonment.
- rrouth@nepc.com.na