WeeklySA_AdminGRISLY:Victim was stabbed 25 times with a knife
By Boitumelo Tshehle
A man who confessed to having raped his 18-year-old girlfriend and stabbing her 25 times with a knife before dousing her with petrol and setting her alight, has been convicted of rape and murder in the North West High Court.
The accused, Karabo Bahurutshe, 19, told the gory details of how he killed Gomolemo Legae of Seweding village in a plea explanation that was read and submitted in court by his legal representative on Thursday. The court heard that he killed his lover because she had threatened to open a case of rape against him and he did not want to go to jail.
The incident shocked the victim’s family so much that it resulted in her distraught father committing suicide after the incident. Her grandmother also died after the death of the two family members. Bahurutshe said it all started at a tavern at Ramosadi in Mahikeng where he was drinking alcohol and smoking dagga.
Legae arrived with her friends and later told him that she wanted to have sexual intercourse with him. Bahurutshe told the court that Legae later changed her mind about where they would have sex and said this would not be happening at his place but somewhere in the street.
Outside the tavern , he then took out a knife and forced her to undress before raping her. “I then undressed myself and pulled out my penis and forcefully had sexual intercourse with her without her consent . I always knew that my conduct was unlawful and punishable,” he said in the plea explanation. He said after the ordeal, Legae threatened to open a case of rape against him. “I did not want to go to jail. So I pulled out a knife and started stabbing her several times,” he said. Bahurutshe said he realised that despite having stabbed her 25 times, Legae was still alive. He left her lying on the ground and walked to a nearby petrol – filling station and bought petrol in a two litre container.
He came back and doused her whole body with petrol and set her alight. “I knew that stabbing her and setting her body alight may result in her death but nevertheless I did it,” he told the court. Legae’s family who were in attendance during the court proceedings, wept uncontrollably while the accused’s lawyer read the gory details of how their loved one was raped and murdered. After the court adjourned, Legae’s aunt, Gadifele Mashetla said she was happy that Bahurutshe had confessed to the horrible crime.
“At least now there is a green light. I want a harsher sentence for him. I want him to go to jail for the rest of his life,” she said.
She said a few weeks after Legae was rap[ed and killed, her father took his own life because he could not handle his daughter’s death and the manner in which she had been killed. “We lost three family members because of this boy. It was not only Gomolemo’s father who died. Her grandmother also died after her father killed himself. We are hurt,” she said.
Presiding Judge F. Snyman accepted his plea explanation and convicted Bahurutshe on charges of murder and rape. Both the State and the defence started making their legal submissions yesterday (Friday)
