Triple rapist receives heavy prison term

A man convicted on three counts of rape was sentenced in the Windhoek High Court to an effective prison term of 35 years on Friday.

Jackson Katjombe (37) committed his crimes against three vulnerable complainants, judge Herman January remarked during Katjombe’s sentencing.

The judge recounted that one of the complainants raped by Katjombe uses a wheelchair and has an intellectual disability, while the second complainant – a younger sister of the first – also has an intellectual disability.

The third complainant in the matter was between eight and nine years old when Katjombe carried out the sexual acts with her.

Katjombe was accused of raping the three complainants on several occasions at a farm in the Otjimbingwe area in the Karibib district between January and September 2018.

The first complainant was 25 years old at the time, while the second complainant was 19 years old.

During Katjombe’s trial, the first complainant told the court that on one of the occasions when Katjombe raped her she had been playing with a doll when he interrupted her and forced himself on her sexually.

She also told the court about another occasion when she was playing with a doll before Katjombe entered the house where she, her sister and the youngest complainant were staying. After entering the house, she said, Katjombe had intercourse with her sister by force.

Katjombe denied guilt on all of the nine charges on which he stood trial.

January found him guilty on three charges of rape and two counts of assault in a judgement delivered in June, after remarking that Katjombe had been an evasive witness when he testified in his own defence and concluding that he was not a credible witness.

The judge also rejected as a fabrication claims by Katjombe that he and the second complainant had been involved in a romantic relationship and that they had consensual intercourse.

During the sentencing on Friday, January echoed remarks in a recent Supreme Court judgement in which it was said that non-consensual sexual intercourse is the most humiliating experience a woman can be subjected to.

Katjombe, who is a first-time offender and a father of three children, committed crimes that are serious and prevalent and has shown no remorse for his actions, January commented.

He sentenced Katjombe to 15 years’ imprisonment on each of the three rape charges. Five years of the sentences on each of the second and third rape counts were ordered to be served concurrently with the sentence on the first charge, resulting in an effective sentence of 35 years’ imprisonment.

Katjombe was also sentenced to a jail term of six months on each of the two assault charges, with those sentences suspended in full for a period of five years.

Deputy prosecutor general Anita Meyer and state advocate Tangeni Iitula represented the state during Katjombe’s trial.
Katjombe was represented by defence lawyer Tjingairi Kaurivi.