State Advocate Palmer Khumalo told Windhoek High Court Judge Dinnah Usiku yesterday that Gavin Gawanab was convicted of heinous crimes and deserves the most severe sentence this court can impose.
He said this when he submitted on the sentence to be imposed on Gawanab, who conducted a terror regime against young girls until his arrest in 2018.
Gawanab was convicted on 14 of the 23 counts.
He faced 23 counts including rape of minors, attempted murder, assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm, assault, attempted rape, alternatively indecent assault, kidnapping, housebreaking with intent to rape and rape as well as crimen injuria.
His crime spree of sexually assaulting under-aged girls started in December 2012 until he was arrested in November 2018 after he raped a 10-year-old girl and cut open her genitals.
He was on bail on the previous charges when he pounced on his latest victim.
Khumalo said the attacks on the victims not only physically scarred them but will have a lifelong emotional effect on them.
He urged the court to impose a sentence of 45 to 50 years on Gawanab.
He said this is possible because the Supreme Court said that, in exceptional circumstances, a court can impose sentences in excess of the 37 and a half years prescribed by the Geingob judgment.
This is such an instance, Khumalo argued.
He implored the judge to show no leniency for the accused, as he did not show any leniency towards his victims.
Gawanab, who sported a rosary (a catholic prayer bead), sat silently and listened intently while Khumalo addressed the judge.
Khumalo told the judge that the accused deserves a severe sentence by the sheer brutality of the crimes he committed against vulnerable girls.
Gawanab pleaded not guilty to all charges at the start of his trial and put the onus on the State to prove each and every allegation against him.
Mbanga Siyomunji, who represented Gawanab on instructions of Legal Aid, told the court that the purpose of punishment is not to break an offender.
He said it is trite that punishment should fit the crime, the offender, the interest of society, but must also be blended with a measure of mercy.
He further said that to order some of the sentences to run concurrently is not to diminish the seriousness of the crimes.
While the crimes the accused is convicted of are of serious in nature, the court must take into account that the Supreme Court said that an offender should not be punished to the extent that he loses all hope of ever being released.
Siyomunji asked the court to show leniency and sentence his client to 30 years.
Gawanab was convicted on a charge of rape in connection with the 10-year-old girl, whose private parts he cut with a knife.
He is acquitted on the further charges of attempted murder and assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm (GBH) because it would have been a duplication of convictions.
Gawanab was further convicted on another two counts of rape, including housebreaking with intent to rape, three counts of attempted rape including one read with Riotous Assemblies Act, two charges of assault GBH, four counts of assault by threat, one count of kidnapping and one count of crimen injuria.
He remains in custody and will return to court for sentencing procedures on 22 September.