Prisoner describes how he was raped by gang leader

A prison gang leader was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison for raping another prisoner twice. This comes after his appeal against his conviction and sentencing was denied by the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria.

Sipho Mthimunye, a 35-year-old prisoner, flatly denied that the rape ever happened even though the victim provided a thorough account of how he was raped twice.

The victim testified in court that he was scared following the first rape, said he was raped again the following evening.

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According to IOL, he was initially too scared to tell anyone because Mthimunye and the other gang members had threatened to kill him.

The rapist appealed to the high court after being found guilty of both charges of rape by the Benoni Regional Court and given a life sentence.

According to the victim’s testimony, Mthimunye and he were both detained at the Modder B detention facility in Benoni.

There were only 26 prisoners in the 60-sleeper cell they shared at the time. The majority of the prisoners in the Rough Three cell belonged to Mthimunye’s gang, which was led by him.

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Mthimunye woke up the victim from his bed one night and offered him a cigarette. The then escorted him to the toilet so he could smoke.

Mthimunye grabbed him from behind and raped him without a condom while chocking him.

The victim said that because he was unable to shout for help because he was being chocked . After he was done sexually violating the victim, Mthimunye gave him instructions to take a shower.

He was threatened by Mthimunye before they went to bed, telling him that he was now his “boy” and that his “boys” would kill him if he reported the incident.

That night, the victim was unable to get any rest. He was too afraid to tell any officials about the sexual assault when he woke up the following morning.

He clarified that this was because he did not trust the prison officials after witnessing the gang’s interactions with them.

The complaint said his mother was also threatened by the Rough Three gang, who threatened to kill him if she did not pay a protection fee.

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The mother had been complying with their demands, but ultimately they escalated to the point where she was unable to pay.

His mother reported the threats after receiving encouragement from the cousin, an ex-correctional services official.

The second event happened the following evening after the cell’s lights were turned off.

When Mthimunye called the who obeyed because he was afraid of him. He was handed a smoke by Mthimunye.

He bent over to light the cigarette, but Mthimunye pulled his face against the pillow and sexually assaulted him.

The victim was broken and crying the next morning and told another prisoner what had happened to him. The other prisoner encouraged him to report the incident.

After being sent to a clinic, he was evaluated by a nursing sister, who verified that he had sustained certain injuries “that may have been caused by a blunt instrument” or as a result of being sexually assaulted.

He was first housed in a single cell and then moved to a different prison.

Mthimunye stated in his testimony that he was unaware of anything that had to do with the sexual assault.

He further stated in his testimony that the victim own insertion of dagga into his anus in order to transfer it to the other cells may have contributed to the injuries that the nursing sister had verified.

He denied any animosity towards the victim and did not provide an explanation for the complainant’s erroneous accusations against him.

The Mthimunye’s version was rejected by the court, which concluded that there was evidence linking him to the complainant’s rape.

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