Pretoria - Serial rapist, Mehlodi Robert Baloyi, 21, has been sentenced to two life terms by the High Court in Polokwane after he was convicted of raping four women he lured on Facebook.
“The accused was sentenced after he was convicted for raping four victims, aged between 15 and 22, at different locations under Westenburg and Seshego policing areas between August 2019 and October 2020. In addition to the two life terms for two counts of rape, the accused was also sentenced to 10 years imprisonment for the other two counts of rape, 10 years for robbery and two years for theft,” said Limpopo police spokesperson Brigadier Motlafela Mojapelo.
“The trial court found that the accused was using Facebook platform to advertise body tattoos,” he said.
Interested customers would approach Baloyi through Facebook messenger texts and he would thereafter offer them free tattoos, claiming it will be his marketing strategy at the victims’ areas.
“Upon the victims agreeing to come to his tattoo shop, he would then take them to an abandoned RDP house at Westenburg Extension 71 and then rape them. Some of the victims were robbed of their cellphones.
“All the cases were reported to the police in Westenburg, and Seshego and then transferred to Family violence, Child protection and Sexual offences (FCS) for further handling,” said Mojapelo.
The court instructed that the sentences will run concurrently.
Earlier this week, police officers from the Limpopo provincial task team and Tzaneen tracking team launched a manhunt for a group of criminals using social media to lure unsuspecting job seekers for non-existing employment and kidnapping them, robbing them and then going to an extend of humiliating them to extort more money from relatives.
Three victims were brought to the Tzaneen police station by a motorist on Sunday, after they allegedly suffered a life-threatening and humiliating ordeal at the hands of kidnappers.
“The three victims, a male person, aged 27, and two women, aged 21 and 33, allegedly responded to an advert on Facebook about employment in Tzaneen. The unsuspecting victims boarded taxis from Jane Furse, Groblersdal and Thohoyandou, respectively, after they were individually directed by the suspects through WhatsApp to a certain spot in Tzaneen for job opportunities,” said Mojapelo.
The four suspects were waiting for the victims at a filling station in Tzaneen, and thereafter boarded a taxi towards Bolobedu with the victims.
“They then disembarked along the way and took the victims to a secluded bushy area where they allegedly robbed them of their cellphones, money and clothes contained in a bag. They then ordered them to strip naked, took pictures and sent them to the family of one of the victims and demanded money for their release,” Mojapelo said.
“The suspects then allegedly ordered the male victim to rape one of the women. The victims were found by a motorist along the road hitch-hiking and took them to Tzaneen police station at about 11am,” he said.
IOL