SCA Reinstates 2021 Conviction of Paramedic for Raping Girlfriend

The SCA* has overturned a controversial 2021 ruling that overturned a paramedic’s conviction for raping his girlfriend. In 2018, the Regional Court in Makhanda found Loyiso Coko guilty of raping his then-girlfriend after she had told him she did not want to have sex and wanted to remain a virgin. EWN reports that the conviction was then set aside by the High Court, which found the State had not proved beyond a reasonable doubt that Coko had “acted intentionally knowing that there was no consent”, resulting in widespread outrage. But the SCA has now reinstated it.

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The court has found the Makhanda Regional Court was correct to reject Loyiso Coko’s defence that there was tacit consent and that the High Court had erred in finding the complainant was an active participant on what the court labelled “unsubstantiated grounds” when it overturned the conviction. Of the High Court’s ruling, the Supreme Court of Appeal said that were it to stand, it would be “a perverse incentive to unscrupulous persons taking advantage of their victims”. It also said it would impede the realisation of gender equality and entrench “patriarchal attitudes, stereotypes and mindsets”.

The matter has now been returned to the High Court to consider Coko’s seven-year sentence.

*Supreme Court of Appeal

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Picture: Pexels / Pavel Danilyuk

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