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Johannesburg - The father of a little Johannesburg girl stormed out of the Palm Ridge Magistrate’s Court when the rapist’s lawyer suggested her attack wasn’t as serious because fingers were used instead of a penis.
The Star reports the lawyer, Jesse Penton, telling the South Gauteng High Court sitting in the Palm Ridge Magistrate’s Court that the “mere touching of genitalia” is a “less serious form of rape”.
In August Mathys van Zyl was convicted of raping the 3-year-old girl in a bathroom. According to Krugersdorp News, Van Zyl put masking tape over the girl’s mouth before he raped her.
The child bled for days afterwards and is now getting therapy.
Penton also argued that Van Zyl did not use excessive violence or beat the little girl.
He argued that “scratching the inside of the genitalia of a child with the tip of a finger is not as serious as putting an adult penis inside”.
But the definition of rape under the Sexual Offences and Related Matters Amendment Act, No 32 of 2007 says it is an act of sexual penetration of a person without his or her consent, irrespective of the body part or object used.
Van Zyl was said to be arrogant and laughed as the children were being cross-examined.
He had previously been found guilty of sexual assault of an 11-year-old girl in 2009. For that crime he received a five-year suspended sentence.
