For the rape of a juvenile, Louis Pepping, a former subject adviser for the Eastern Cape department of education, received a life sentence on Friday.
The Mthatha High Court convicted the 58-year-old guilty of raping a six-year-old child in Ngobozana, Lusikisiki, in 2019. In June 2021, he sexually abused a pupil who was 15 years old while he was free on bail.
His name was to be added to the national list of sex offenders, the court ruled.
As she handed down her ruling, acting judge Mvuzo Notyesi concurred with senior state lawyer Mbulelo Nyendwana that there were no significant or compelling reasons to deviate from the mandatory life term for raping a child.
According to Luxolo Tyali, a spokesman for the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), they are pleased with the verdict.
According to Tyali, “Pepping never expressed any remorse, and the court was not impressed by the facts offered in the reduction of punishment, that he was a church elder and had four children, whose names he does not even know.
Pepping is a highly educated guy who should have known better, and the court agreed with the prosecution’s team on this point.
“He has shown that he is a menace to society, particularly the weak, and ought to be removed from it for the longest period of time. He displayed complete disdain for the law in court, even raising his middle [finger] against the judges.
»An ex-school administrator was sentenced to life for child rape«