A man who invited three little girls to come and pick oranges, then raped two of them, has accused his young victims of conspiring against him.
A man who invited three little girls to come and pick oranges, then raped two of them, has accused his young victims of conspiring against him.
However, Judge Nomathamsanqa Beshe described the evidence of Bongani Witbooi as "improbable and contrived".
Witbooi, 22, who is from the Moses Mabida location, in Kirkwood, was found guilty of two counts of rape, and one count of attempted rape in the High Court in Grahamstown on August 26.
The incident took place in November. According to court documents the three children, two ages 7 and one 8, were playing with their friends in the street when Witbooi asked them to come with him to a nearby farm to pick oranges.
While on Luthando farm, Witbooi raped two of the children before being disturbed by an approaching tractor. The third girl ran away.
Witbooi claimed that while he was up the tree picking oranges he heard the girls screaming for him to help. He said he had seen three boys and had climbed down the tree to intervene.
He told the court that while he was up the tree, he had seen the girls with their heads together. That, he claim, was when they had devised a plan to falsely implicate him in the crime.
Judge Beshe said, “The accused's evidence was improbable and contrived. Further, his claim that the complainants conspired to implicate him cannot hold.
I am unable to find the evidence of the accused to be reasonably true,” she said.
Beshe said she was satisfied that the state had proved its case beyond reasonable doubt.
She said the children had given evidence “clearly and coherently", and that their evidence had been corroborated by the doctor who examined them.
The case is postponed to September 27 to allow the state to call another witness before sentencing.
