‘Sexual predator’ sentenced to 55 years in prison

A Hardap region resident convicted on multiple charges of rape and housebreaking, including one charge involving the rape of a four-month-old baby, has been sentenced to an effective prison term of 55 years at the end of his trial in the Windhoek High Court.

During the sentencing of Jonas Murao (47) on Friday, judge Claudia Claasen described Murao as a “serial rapist” who carried out crimes that showed “a sustained pattern of predatory sexual conduct” directed at vulnerable victims.

The crimes Murao was convicted of demonstrate a profound disregard for the dignity and bodily integrity of his victims, Claasen said.

Murao was found guilty on six charges, including counts of housebreaking with intent to rape and rape, housebreaking with intent to rape and attempted rape, indecent assault and abduction, at the end of July this year.

The charges against Murao, who made a living as a farmworker, emanated 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.

In her verdict in Murao’s trial, Claasen found that Murao indecently assaulted a sleeping woman at Hoachanas on 12 November 2016, and on the same day also broke into a house at the settlement, carried off a four-month-old baby girl and raped the baby, before returning her to the room where her parents were sleeping.

He was found guilty of indecent assault in connection with the incident involving the sleeping woman, and of abduction and housebreaking with intent to rape and rape in connection with the incident involving the baby.

Murao was also convicted of housebreaking with intent to rape and rape in connection with an incident during which he broke into a house at Hoachanas on 3 February 2012 and committed a sexual act with a sleeping woman.

Murao was further found guilty of housebreaking with intent to rape and attempted rape in connection with an incident during which he broke into a house at Hoachanas and committed a sexual act with a sleeping woman on 14 May 2016.

Claasen sentenced him to 22 years’ imprisonment on the housebreaking and rape charge involving the baby, 12 years’ imprisonment on each of the other charges of housebreaking and rape and housebreaking and attempted rape, a prison term of four years for abduction, a jail term of three years for indecent assault, and two years’ imprisonment on a charge of housebreaking with intent to steal and theft.

With none of the sentences ordered to be served concurrently, Murao received an effective period of 55 years’ imprisonment.