Thrown out of the house to sleep outdoors, denied clothing and served brandy-laced cold drink, all so her stepfather could rape her. Now the 66-year-old man has been jailed for his maltreatment of the child from the time she was 10 years old.

Luxolo Tyali, the National Prosecuting Authority's (NPA) Eastern Cape spokesperson, said the Butterworth regional court has sentenced the man to 18 years imprisonment for rape.

Between January 2012 and October 2015, the man, whose name has been withheld to protect the identity of the victim, stayed with the victim in Butterworth. His wife, the victim’s mother, stayed at her marital home in a village in the district of Butterworth.

"The stepfather would give the unsuspecting victim, who was 10 at the time, Coke mixed with brandy to drink. When the victim fell asleep, he would rape her. The child would wake up and notice that her private parts were wet. The man did this over three years. In some instances, he did not drug her but threatened to stop buying her clothes if she refused to have sex with him.

"When the victim resisted her stepfather’s advances, he would chase her away from their home, forcing her to sleep in a nearby church and next to a river," said Tyali.

The rapes were reported when the victim, who was then 13, confided in a teacher at her school. The teacher reported the matter to social workers. The child was placed in a place of safety and her stepfather was arrested.

The man pleaded not guilty, said Tyali, but the court convicted him after prosecutor Jongikhaya Dudumashe led the evidence of the victim, the victim’s teacher and the social worker who assisted the victim.

Tyali said the state pleaded for the imposition of the prescribed minimum sentence of life imprisonment, "but the court found there were compelling reasons to deviate from it because of the rapist’s age and his suffering from chronic high blood pressure."

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