Tebogo Msimanga |
The High Court in Polokwane sentenced a Facebook serial rapist, Mehlodi Robert Baloyi aged 21 to two life sentences. The accused was sentenced after he was convicted of raping four victims aged between 15 and 22 at different locations under Westenburg and Seshego policing areas between August 2019 and October 2020.
Limpopo Police Spokesperson Brigadier Motlafela Mojapelo said 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 02 years for theft.
The trial court found that Baloyi was using Facebook platform to advertise body tattoos. Interested customers would approach him through Facebook messenger texts and he would thereafter offer them free tattoos, claiming it will be his marketing strategy in the victim’s areas.
Mojapelo added that upon the victims agreeing to come to Baloyi’s tattoo shop, he took them to an abandoned RDP house at Westenburg Extension 71 and raped them. “Some of the victims were robbed of their cellphones”.
Limpopo Police Commissioner Lieutenant General Thembi Hadebe welcomed this sentence.
