Serial rapist handed 55-year jail term

**Iuze Mukube **

A 55-year prison sentence has been handed to a Hoachanas man convicted of kidnapping and raping a four-month-old baby in 2016.

The sentence was imposed on Jonas Murao (47) in the Windhoek High Court last Friday. Murao faced six counts, including housebreaking with intent to steal and theft, two counts of housebreaking with intent to rape and rape, housebreaking with intent to rape and attempted rape, indecent assault and abduction.

During the sentencing, Judge Claudia Claasen found that there was no evidence available suggesting that Murao’s economic circumstances impaired his criminal capacity. She found that while some of the complainants forgave Murao, such “forgiveness cannot erase the trauma revealed by the evidence during the trial, nor can it diminish the genital injuries recorded in the medico-legal report relating to the infant. “Above all, a complainant’s forgiveness should not be conflated with remorse on the part of the offender or with a reduction in his blameworthiness.”

She further found that it was aggravating that the accused abducted an exceptionally vulnerable victim, an infant, who was wholly incapable of self-protection.

“As such, the sentence needs to be a warning that, even if he returned the infant that same night, the children of this country need protection and it should reaffirm society’s condemnation of such reprehensible conduct.”

She pointed out that his conduct, on the sexual offences, revealed a pattern consistent with planning and deliberate exploitation of vulnerable victims and a profound abuse of trust relationships.

“These features substantially aggravate the accused’s moral blameworthiness and underscore the seriousness of his conduct.”

She also found that housebreaking with the intention to steal is an intrusive offence as it invades the complainant’s premises, violates their sense of security and appropriates that person’s land and, in many cases, damages the structure.

Judge Claasen also found that indecent assault likewise constitutes a serious invasion of a complainant’s dignity and bodily integrity.

“The accused employed a strikingly similar modus operandi and deliberate pattern of predatory conduct. He targeted the complainants under the cover of darkness.” He entered premises unlawfully with the intention of having sexual intercourse with the victims and acted without regard for family ties, friendship or trust relationships, the judge added.

“His victims included a relative, an elderly woman who had assisted his mother, and the infant child of a friend and relative, as well as a former schoolmate. In every instance, he betrayed the trust placed in him.” Murao evidently also moved from one victim to another within a few hours.

She pointed out that when Murao could not carry out his intentions inside the family’s home, he removed the infant from the house to a rubbish dump, sexually violated her and later returned her to the house. She found that there were no compelling and substantial circumstances to justify departing from the prescribed sentencing regime.

Claasen concluded that his offences reveal a sustained pattern of predatory sexual conduct directed at vulnerable victims. “They demonstrate a profound disregard for the dignity and bodily integrity of those victims,” she added.

The sentence imposed included two years for housebreaking with intent to steal and theft, 12 years for housebreaking with intent to rape and rape, 12 years for housebreaking with intent to rape and attempted rape, three years for indecent assault, four years for abduction, and 22 years for housebreaking with intent to rape and rape. The charges against Murao stemmed from events that were alleged to have taken place at Hoachanas in the Mariental district in November 2008, February 2012, May 2016 and November 2016. The State says Murao raped a sleeping woman at Hoachanas on 12 November 2016. On the same day, he broke into another house at the settlement, carried off a four-month-old baby girl and raped her.

He also broke into a house at Hoachanas on 3 February 2012 and committed a sexual act with a sleeping woman.

A similar incident occurred on 14 May 2016, when Murao allegedly broke into another house at Hoachanas and committed a sexual act with a sleeping woman. It is alleged that Murao broke into a shop at the settlement on three occasions in November 2008, and stole alcohol, cigarettes and money. Murao was represented by Peru Liebenberg and the State by Dominic Lisulo. –[email protected]

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