Durban serial rapist to appeal his 105 years

Serial rapist 27-year-old Khanyisani Njabulo Ngobese, of KwaMashu, intends to appeal against his three life terms and 105 years for several counts of rape and robbery with aggravating circumstance.

Ngobese was sentenced on Wednesday by Durban High Court Judge Kate Pillay.

Among his 10 victims were three minors, a pregnant woman and a woman he raped twice.

Ngobese still maintains his innocence and his lawyer, Marshal Zulu, had asked to make an application for leave to take his client’s conviction on appeal.

This application would be heard at a later stage.

The tall young man wearing a black sweatshirt and black tracksuit pants raced down to the holding cells soon after he was sentenced to avoid being photographed.

In handing down the sentence, Pillay referred to the women, saying many of them had been accosted by Ngobese with a knife, and in one case, a gun.

During the period July 2011 to July 2013 he raped 10 women using almost the same modus operandi. He would accost them from behind, threaten them with a weapon and drag them into nearby bushes where he raped them.

In some of the cases he lured the women with promises of employment before raping and robbing them. These incidents happened in Mandeni, Phoenix, Newlands East and Newlands West.
Pillay said he was arrested initially for one of the offences and released on bail. While out on bail he raped two other women.

The charges were then withdrawn because the dockets were not in court on time and he then raped another six women before his second arrest.

During arguments for sentencing, Zulu asked for the court to be lenient seeing Ngobese was a first offender and had had a difficult childhood.

Referring to the victim impact statements submitted to the court by State advocate Khatija Essack, the judge said they were alarming.

“Despite the overwhelming evidence against him, he continued to embroider his own story, one he believed to be true.

“I acknowledge that he did emerge from an unfortunate background, but this court has seen many similar backgrounds.”

Two of the three life terms he received were for the two minors he raped and another, for the woman he raped twice. The 105 years were for the other counts of rape and robbery with aggravating circumstances. – Daily News