Convicted rapist free after 17 years

Former Karibib farmer and convicted rapist, Thomas Afrikaner, who has been serving a 27-year jail term on five charges of rape is a free man after serving 17 years of the sentence. That is thanks to the Supreme Court overturning two of the five counts.
Afrikaner was found guilty and sentenced by Judge Pio Teek in November 2000 in a High Court sitting at Walvis Bay on five counts of rape of minor girls of which three girls were aged fourteen, thirteen and ten. He was sentenced to five years each for four of the charges, and seven years for the fifth charge.
All incidents related to the charges took place at the farm Afrikaner was employed at in the Karibib area between 1998 and 1999. His defence to the charges were that the sexual intercourse was consensual with four of the girls, but denied having had sex with the fifth [youngest] girl. He also claimed that he took in one of the girls because she was working as a prostitute, which then led to a sexual relationship developing between them.
Judge Sylvester Mainga ordered Afrikaners’ immediate release on Thursday, after a full bench ruled two of the five charges could not be proven beyond reasonable doubt. Some of the charges were only reported long after the alleged incidents took place, regardless of ample opportunities earlier to report it.
These two charges resulted in 12 years of his jail time falling away.