QACHA’S NEK – A 29-year-old man from Tebellong in Qacha’s Nek was on Monday slapped with a 10-year jail sentence without an option of a fine for rape.
Thakhisi Lebetsa was convicted of raping a 31-year old woman at Sekiring in November last year.
Testifying before the court, the complainant said Lebetsa raped and threatened to harm her if she reported the matter to the police.
Lebetsa pleaded guilty and in mitigation asked for the court’s leniency.
He said he was an orphan supporting his sick grandmother. He also said he was unemployed.
Magistrate Samuel Loko imposed a 10-year jail sentence on Lebetsa.
Meanwhile a 17-year-old girl from Ts’enola in Maseru was on Monday sent to the Juvenile Training Centre for insulting a police officer.
The teenager, who cannot be named because she is a minor, was charged under section 31 of the Internal Security Act of 1984.
Under the Act it is an offence punishable by a jail term for anyone to use obscene, abusing, threatening or insulting language in a manner that breaches peace.
The court heard that the girl insulted a police officer at the Police Headquarters in Maseru on 26 January for arresting some suspects whom she referred to as “our husbands”.
The girl’s mother told the court that she last saw her daughter sometime in 2006 when she was about to sit for Standard 7 examinations.
She said her daughter was now a sex worker.
In mitigation the mother said the girl’s father died in 2001.
Maseru magistrate ‘Mampho Mokoena committed the girl to a juvenile training centre.
