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Home / Young man guilty of raping Okahandja schoolgirls
Young man guilty of raping Okahandja schoolgirls
2016-10-24Staff Report 2 Windhoek - A young man in his early twenties was on Thursday last week convicted by Judge Boas Usiku in the Windhoek High Court on five counts of rape, one count of attempted murder and one count of assault. Rudolf Goagoseb was accused of violating three schoolgirls on their way home from school on September, 29, 2010 in Okahandja. According to evidence led during the trial, Goagoseb came across the girls who were aged between 12 and 14 at the time, in a footpath and wielded a broken bottleneck at them. He then directed them to proceed walking along another path going deeper into the bush and threatened that he would harm anyone who ran away. Having led them into the bush, he instructed them to undress while he too removed his clothes, the judge recounted. After undressing himself he instructed the girls to suck his privates and then proceeded to rape one of the girls repeatedly. He was apprehended after two of the girls managed to run away and alert members of the community. Goagoseb denied that he was the person that committed the lewd acts and said the girls confused him with someone else. However, Judge Usiku said, he was positively identified by the girls as well as by their description of what he was wearing on the day in question. “In addition,” the judge said, “evidence was adduced before this court that the DNA profile of one of the complainants was found on the underwear and on the shorts worn by the accused on that day.” According to the judge, further evidence is the admitted statement Goagoseb made to the police that he was the one who encountered the complainants and raped one of them. The judge said he is satisfied the state proved beyond a reasonable doubt that it was Goagoseb who committed the act. He further said that he finds sufficient evidence had been placed before the court that the accused caused all three complainants to suck his private parts and that he had unlawful intercourse with one of the complainants. This constitutes a sexual act within the meaning of the Combating of Rape Act, the judge said. The judge said he is satisfied that the state proved the allegations of rape against the accused and he convicts him accordingly. On the charge of attempted murder, the judge said, clear and cogent evidence was given and corroborated that Goagoseb assaulted, wrenched and twisted the complainant’s neck and placed a T-shirt to cover her mouth and nose, making it difficult for her to breathe. He said it is common knowledge that the neck is considered one of the vulnerable parts of the body. “Wrenching and twisting the neck may cause it to break and death is a reasonable possibility. Furthermore, starving a person of oxygen by obstructing airflow to the mouth and nose, in the circumstances, make death a reasonable possibility,” the judge stated. The matter was postponed to October 26 for sentencing proceedings to commence. State Advocate Palmer Khumalo prosecuted and Titus Ipumbu aappeared for Goagoseb on instructions from the Department of Legal Aid. 2016-10-24Staff Report 2
