Windhoek
High Court Judge Dinah Usiku on Thursday issued one of the sternest warnings yet to would-be rapists that the courts are fed up, when she sentenced a convicted rapist to 37 years behind bars.
“It goes without saying that violent conduct is no longer to be tolerated. As such, the courts are required to impose stiffer punishment for offenders that commit serious crimes, such as the present one,” she said before bringing the wall down on Rehoboth resident Franklin Savage for raping and sodomising a woman, for the attempted rape of another woman and for the attempted murder and mutilation of a third woman.
A seemingly resigned Savage listened attentively to an interpreter, while Judge Uusiku sentenced him to seven years on the attempted rape count, 10 years on the attempted murder charge and 15 years each on the two counts of rape.
Judge Usiku said: “With this sentence a message must be sent out that punishment for these types of violent crimes against women and children that have continued to escalate in this country would become progressively heavier until the tide is turned, and the battle against these crimes is won.”
It was, however, ordered that the sentence on the attempted murder conviction run concurrently with one of the rape convictions, resulting in an effective 37 years behind bars.
Judge Usiku said the court is mindful of the fact that the accused should not be sacrificed on “the altar of deterrence”, simply because of the prevalence of these types of crimes.
At the same time the judge said, the court must not lose sight of the fact that lately and frequently the courts are required to decide on cases in which extremely young children and women are subjected to terrible crimes of rape and murder.
This inevitably raises the question: “What happened to the moral values of our society?” she pointed out, adding that the crimes Savage was convicted of are very serious and also very prevalent in the jurisdiction of the court.
“The victim was left with permanent and emotional scars,” she stated.
Judge Usiku further said although the accused pleaded for mercy, he did not take the court into his confidence in order to express “real remorse”.
She further said that having dealt with the prevalence and seriousness of these types of crimes, the court will not lose sight of the accused’s personal circumstances, that he was relatively young when he committed the crimes, his background, as well as the period of incarceration since his arrest.
Having said that, however, the judge noted that society expects the accused to be punished fairly and firmly, “as crime in general is a grave concern to all of us”.
Judge Usiku said deterrence is the over-arching and general purpose of punishment, and since no civilised community should have to tolerate barbaric conduct, in cases of serious crimes in particular, the deterrence and retribution aims of punishment are to be preferred over those of prevention and rehabilitation, factors that play a subordinate role in such cases.