Facebook rapist strikes again!
On Monday, a 28-year-old man from Kanye, Tebogo Phisco Matlakala, was sentenced to 15 years in prison for the rape and theft of a mobile phone from a 24-year-old woman from Mahalapye.
Matlakala used Facebook to lure women across Botswana under fraudulent job opportunities guises.
He created fictitious Facebook profiles to pose as a beneficial figure assisting women in job hunting. People got deceived by this contrived benevolent persona online.
Although convicted for an offence in September 2022, Matlakala faces additional charges at the Kanye magistrate court.
These pending cases involve allegations of swindling people through Facebook, thus underlining a pattern of deceitful conduct.
The court heard how Matlakala had contacted a woman from Mahalapye on Facebook under the ruse of a job interview.
The woman then travelled from Mahalapye to Kanye for the supposed interview, where Matlakala assaulted and robbed her of her black Samsung Duos phone.
The attack was violent, leaving the woman with injuries on her right hand and forehead from a fall during the struggle.
During mitigation, Matlakala cited a difficult upbringing due to an absent father, early abandonment, and childhood trauma from rape by a family helper as factors that contributed to his actions. He asked the court for leniency, attributing his offences to his troubled past.
Senior Magistrate Keneilwe Kgoadi, before delivering the sentence, warned of the dangers of falling for fake job advertisements especially considering the high unemployment rate.
She urged the public to exercise caution when dealing with offers on social platforms like Facebook.