MASERU — When a woman is chased and stabbed with a knife, she cannot consent to sex even if she had undressed herself.
This was the message that Maseru magistrate, Masupha Kao, delivered as he passed judgment on a 22-year-old man from Ha-Tikoe who was charged with rape.
Ngaka Malingoane was yesterday found guilty of raping a 16-year-old girl on New Year’s Day at Ha-Tsolo.
An HIV test conducted on him at a local state hospital produced a positive result.
Public prosecutor ´Mamongonyo Baasii told the court that Malingoane chased the teenager and stabbed the girl with a knife before raping her.
However, in an almost comical defence before Kao, Malingoane denied ordering the girl to undress saying she did so on her own volition.
“I did not ask her to undress . . . she undressed (on her own) and I had sex with her. After having sex she said we were in love,” Malingoane told a stunned court.
Malingoane, who was dressed in black short pants and a black jersey gesticulated wildly while addressing the court.
At one time, he stood akimbo but was reprimanded and ordered not to put his hands on his waist while talking to the magistrate.
He then made a stunning U-turn almost incriminating himself when he admitted chasing the girl with a knife before having sex with her.
“I admit that I chased and stabbed her with a knife. She consented to sex because she was scared,” Malingoane said.
In his judgment, Kao said he had found the accused guilty as charged.
“It is so in law that sex should be consensual, I therefore find you guilty as charged,” Kao said.
Malingoane was sentenced to 10 years in jail.
Meanwhile a Chinese woman appeared in the Maseru magistrate’s court on yesterday charged with dealing in precious stones without a licence.
Chen Xuin, 40, who works as a manager at China Garments Manufacturers pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Xuin is alleged to have been found in possession of 11 diamond stones in paper packets as she was about to board a plane at Moshoeshoe I International Airport.
A police officer who had arrested Xuin told the court that she was “wild, unco-operative and had refused to be searched”.
The diamonds were graded 0.2380 carats each.
“We then went to Airlink offices to ask them to cancel her trip as we had a matter to deal with her. She was wild and unco-operative,” said Fotho.
“I searched her again and found the diamonds in her shoe socks (6) and her breast (5) where they were in small packets.
She said when they asked her for the certificate, Xuin had said it was being brought by another Chinese national from Maseru but when the certificate did not come she decided to arrest her.
