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She was only three years old when she was raped, and five years old when she testified against the young man accused of the crime. <\/p>\n
But first a magistrate \u2013 and now two judges \u2013 have labelled her a star witness, better than many adults, whose evidence could be completely believed. <\/p>\n
\u201cHer evidence was clear, simple and straightforward. She narrated the rape incident with remarkable brilliance and intelligence which is often not found even in some adult witnesses,\u201d said Judge Isaac Madondo with Judge Rishi Seegobin concurring. <\/p>\n
The case came before them as an appeal by 19-year-old Sihle Julius Cele who had been convicted in the Ixopo Regional Court of the rape and sentenced to life imprisonment. <\/p>\n
During the trial, the little girl said she had been walking through the bush near her home when Cele grabbed her, removed her pants and raped her. <\/p>\n
She reported the incident to her grandmother who then reported it to her aunt. They both examined her and saw blood and semen. <\/p>\n
A doctor confirmed that the child had been raped. <\/p>\n
Cele denied committing the crime, but the magistrate found him guilty. <\/p>\n
Dealing with the evidence of young children, the appeal judges said while there was no statutory requirement demanding corroboration of a child\u2019s evidence, in practice it must be treated with caution. <\/p>\n
In this matter, the only evidence implicating Cele was that of the child, although the incident itself had been confirmed by the findings of the grandmother and aunt, the clinical findings by the doctor and by the details given by the child. <\/p>\n
\u201cShe gave a detailed and logical account of the rape and this was not the type of story that could credibly emerge from the fantasy of a three-year-old. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe details were too graphically realistic and precise,\u201d the judges noted. <\/p>\n
\u201cShe said without hesitation that Cele was responsible. She remained unshaken throughout cross-examination, which would have been unlikely had she invented the story. <\/p>\n
\u201cShe is an intelligent child who gave her evidence in a convincing manner.\u201d <\/p>\n
By contrast, the accused was a dishonest witness. <\/p>\n
However, the judges felt the magistrate had been too harsh in sentencing him. <\/p>\n
While they said \u201crape is a crime of utmost gravity and the offence committed in this case is repulsive\u201d, there were circumstances to deviate from the legislated sentence of life imprisonment. Cele was 19 when he committed the crime, a pupil and a first offender. He had been abandoned by his father at an early age. <\/p>\n
The judges converted the sentence to one of 15 years in prison and recommended he be placed in a psychiatric treatment and rehabilitation programme in prison. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
She was only three years old when she was raped, and five years old when she testified against the young man accused of the crime. But first a magistrate \u2013 and now two judges \u2013 have labelled her a star witness, better than many adults, whose evidence could be completely believed. \u201cHer evidence was clear, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[8275,953,2143],"class_list":{"0":"post-13219","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-durban","8":"tag-newspaper","9":"tag-the-mercury","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13219"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13219\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}