A Northern Cape man has been sentenced to eight years imprisonment for sexually abusing his mentally challenged young niece.

According to police spokesperson Mashay Gamieldien, the 7-year-old victim’s mother, at the time of the assault in 2012, left the girl alone in the house in Rosedale in Upington. When she returned to her home she noticed the now convicted uncle with her daughter in the living room.

Gamieldien says that the victim was able to alert her mother of the incident, and the man was arrested in April 2017. Gamieldien says with the assistance of technology during the trial, Warrant Officer Marius Struwig ensured the victim was able to be present for the trial. 

‘’The victim was able to testify using a tablet to communicate. This was the first for the Northern Cape courts, which made it possible for a victim to be heard and making sure that justice was served using a communication device to tell her story.

“The 36-year-old male, who is an uncle of the victim, was found guilty and sentenced to eight years direct imprisonment in the Upington Regional Court’’.

The man has now been registered as a sexual offender and he was also found unfit to possess a firearm.

OFM News