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WARNING: This story contains graphic content

The Johannesburg High Court has handed down two life sentences and eight and a half years to a stepfather who raped and murdered his partner’s four-year-old daughter.

Baby Nikita was raped vaginally and anally by her stepfather in August last year, and was also brutally beaten and drowned by the man.

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The child and her baby brother were found at their home in Eldorado Park by police, who found Baby Nikita severely bruised. She was rushed to hospital and succumbed to her injuries in August.

On Tuesday, the court noted that the stepfather, who was supposed to protect the child, had inflicted grievous harm on her, describing the details as too disturbing to recount in full.

“It is so gruelling in nature that the court would rather not sum it up, as that would not be interesting reading for persons who are not qualified to hear that evidence. All the court wishes to say is that your actions, especially the assault of the deceased, was a gruelling attack on her. And you showed no mercy to either the complainant and the deceased,” said Judge Peet Johnson.

“In count 1, you are sentenced to life imprisonment. Counts 2 and 3 are taken together for purposes of sentence or sentence to life imprisonment. On count 4, you are sentenced to 4 years’ imprisonment. On count 5, you are sentenced to 4 years’ imprisonment. Counts 8 and 9 are taken together for the purposes of sentence. For those offences, you are sentenced to 6 months’ imprisonment. It is ordered that the sentences on counts 2, 3, 4, 5, 8 and 9 run concurrently.”

In his plea submission, the man gave a detailed account of his actions, admitting that he had bitten Baby Nikita several times, beaten her, raped her and drowned her.

He also admitted to assaulting her baby brother in March of the same year.

The child’s mother faces charges of child abuse and failing to report sexual offences. She has pleaded not guilty.

The 34-year-old Eldorado Park man pleaded guilty to all the charges against him, including assaulting the three-year-old son he shares with Baby Nikita’s mother. While the court took his guilty plea into consideration, it found that he remained a danger to society.

“Society also needs its interests to be considered. Persons like you, in the court’s opinion, are a danger to society. And to prevent the community from taking the law into their own hands, offenders need to be punished appropriately,” said Judge Johnson.

The man told the court that his actions were a result of drug abuse and pleaded with it to consider his guilty plea, apology, and other children when deciding on a lighter sentence.

However, the judge noted that being under the influence of drugs was no excuse for the crimes he had committed.

“So in respect of Counts 1 and Counts 2 and 3, the court is obliged to impose the sentence of life imprisonment unless substantial and compelling circumstances exist which justify the court to deviate from this. As I’ve said, you acted in an extremely brutal manner towards your victims, and you gave the deceased no right to life without consideration. Your behaviour has had a negative impact on any person near or dear to the deceased as well as to the community. In considering whether the court is entitled to deviate from the mandatory sentence, the following were considered,” said Judge Johnson.

The State argued that life imprisonment was the appropriate sentence, maintaining that the man’s apology and personal circumstances did not justify a lighter punishment.

During proceedings for leave to appeal the sentence, the man’s defence argued that the court had failed to consider that he was a first-time offender, had confessed to the murder and was remorseful.

The court dismissed the application, stating that it had considered all the relevant factors and imposed a sentence appropriate to his crimes.

Meanwhile, Baby Nikita’s mother intends to apply for bail in her separate case, in which she faces charges relating to the abuse of minors and failing to report sexual offences.

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