IOL reports that a 43-year-old police sergeant who demanded sex and promised to release a 32-year-old woman who had been arrested for shoplifting, but failed to release her, has been sentenced to an effective 10 years in jail for rape.

Police sergeant Philani Praiselord Mkhwanazi was sentenced by the Richards Bay Regional Court, following his conviction on rape and corruption. nPA spokesperson Natasha Ramkisson-Kara reported: “In November 2020, the 32-year-old complainant was arrested for (alleged) shoplifting and taken to the Esikhaleni police station where she was kept with another woman arrested for the same offence. At some stage, Mkhwanazi moved the complainant out of the cell and into another room. There he asked her for sex in exchange for her release. She gave consent on the understanding that she would be released. However, when they were done Mkhwanazi did not release her, but instead returned her to the cell. She then reported the incident to her cell companion, and another police officer at that station and evidence was secured.” In aggravation of sentence, the prosecutor handed in a victim-impact statement compiled by the complainant which indicated that since the incident she had been ostracised by her family, that she lived in fear and had lost her dignity.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Sisipho Bhuta at IOL

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