Elderly sex offender escapes life sentence
Publish date: 21 July 2005
Issue Number: 1382
Diary: Legalbrief Today
Category: In Court
An elderly repeat sex offender has escaped a life sentence for his rape and sodomising of a seven-year-old girl and sodomising of two young boys and will spend six years in jail, according to a report in the Cape Argus.
Cape High Court acting Justice Dumisane Zondi ruled that the age of 71-year-old Mitchells Plain resident Yusuf Harrison and his frail condition provided compelling reasons for him not to be sentenced to life imprisonment. The judge said the children had suffered no obvious physical injuries and the fact Harrison had not used a weapon when he abused his victims should also count in his favour. The State showed he had been convicted of indecently assaulting children in 1993 and 1983. He received a suspended sentence for the first offence and 18 months\' jail for the second. Full Cape Argus report
