A High Court judge sentences a child rapist to 15 years

A Pretoria High Court judge has sentenced a child rapist to 15 years' imprisonment instead of handing down a life sentence because the rape was not what he called brutal. Acting Judge Natvarial Ranchod is quoted as saying there were substantial and compelling circumstances in the case, which prevented him from imposing the minimum sentence of life imprisonment on 44-year-old Jack Mabena who was convicted of raping a nine-year-old girl at his house in Soshanguve near Pretoria. Ranchod said the fact that the rape was not brutal and that Mabena was a first offender, who had reached middle age without clashing with the law were substantial and compelling circumstances.