News / Africa
Serial rapist convicted
06 Mar 2016 at 10:51hrs | Views
An unemployed 20-year-old man has been found guilty of four separate counts of rape involving four different women.
The Voice reported that repeat offender, Serenyatseng Bikina Garetshele, of Lekobeng cattlepost near Matsitama village in the central administrative district, will be sentenced next Friday and seems certain to receive a lengthy prison sentence.
Garetshele history makes for grim reading and when Francistown principal magistrate, ThebeetsileMulalu gave a detailed account of the felon's extensive misdemeanors the gallery gasped in stunned horror.
According to the charges, Garetshele's disdain for the law started at a young age.
On 13 December 2011 he raped a 56-year-old woman from Lekobeng who was on her way home from a drinking spot at the settlement.
Eleven days later, at the same cattlepost, the court heard that Garetshele then raped another woman, this time a 39-year-old.
He was immediately arrested and charged with two counts of rape but fled after he was granted bail in early 2012.
However he wasn't able to keep out of trouble for long and, on 26 August 2012, at the same location as the previous incidents but this time in full view of drinkers at a nearby shebeen, Garetshele raped a 47-year-old woman.
He was re-arrested but inexplicably was granted bail again in mid-January 2013.
It did not take long for Garetshele to re-offend and he was arrested on 20 January 2013 after raping a 50-year-old woman, once again the scene of the crime being Lekobeng cattlepost.
Garetshele pleaded not guilty to all four incidents arguing that the victims were all his girlfriends.
He told the court that the women had conspired together to plot his downfall after discovering that he had obtained a job as a herdboy.
Mulau dismissed these claims however and praised the victims for their bravery in recalling their traumatic experiences in graphic detail.
The Voice reported that repeat offender, Serenyatseng Bikina Garetshele, of Lekobeng cattlepost near Matsitama village in the central administrative district, will be sentenced next Friday and seems certain to receive a lengthy prison sentence.
Garetshele history makes for grim reading and when Francistown principal magistrate, ThebeetsileMulalu gave a detailed account of the felon's extensive misdemeanors the gallery gasped in stunned horror.
According to the charges, Garetshele's disdain for the law started at a young age.
On 13 December 2011 he raped a 56-year-old woman from Lekobeng who was on her way home from a drinking spot at the settlement.
Eleven days later, at the same cattlepost, the court heard that Garetshele then raped another woman, this time a 39-year-old.
He was immediately arrested and charged with two counts of rape but fled after he was granted bail in early 2012.
However he wasn't able to keep out of trouble for long and, on 26 August 2012, at the same location as the previous incidents but this time in full view of drinkers at a nearby shebeen, Garetshele raped a 47-year-old woman.
He was re-arrested but inexplicably was granted bail again in mid-January 2013.
It did not take long for Garetshele to re-offend and he was arrested on 20 January 2013 after raping a 50-year-old woman, once again the scene of the crime being Lekobeng cattlepost.
Garetshele pleaded not guilty to all four incidents arguing that the victims were all his girlfriends.
He told the court that the women had conspired together to plot his downfall after discovering that he had obtained a job as a herdboy.
Mulau dismissed these claims however and praised the victims for their bravery in recalling their traumatic experiences in graphic detail.
Source - The Voice
