QUOTE
Convicted paedophile Gordon Joubert has volunteered to be castrated - even though he has never admitted to raping and indecently assaulting children and filming his activities.
This was one of the arguments given in mitigation of sentence by his attorney, Charles Thompson, in the Johannesburg High Court on Thursday.
The 49-year-old information technology specialist was convicted in July on 35 counts, including eight of rape, 11 of indecent assault, 14 of crimen injuria, one of contravening the Film and Publications Act and one of possessing counterfeit banknotes.
'Some of his victims were assaulted through his hands'
Joubert, from Muldersdrift, north of Johannesburg, was arrested in October 2004 following a child-molestation rampage dating from 1998. He targeted children between the ages of six and 16.
Thompson said imposing a lengthy sentence would be like a "double-edged sword" if the court considered that the offences were "not one of the worst rapes and (that) great care was taken not to cause any serious harm" to his victims.
He then stunned the court when he said Joubert "would, without admitting guilt, voluntarily submit himself to castration". This, he said, was the noblest argument that substantial and compelling circumstances existed for a lesser sentence.
State prosecutor Jacqueline Steyn was quick to oppose this, calling it "ridiculous and beyond imagination".
"If the state does make that order, his hands should be amputated as well. Some of his victims were assaulted through his hands. There is nothing that justifies imposing a lesser sentence than a life sentence," Steyn said.
'He is a psychopath'
Judge Naren Pandya also pointed to it being an impossible order to grant in terms of the constitution.
Pressing for the minimum sentences of life imprisonment on each of the rape counts and 10 years on the indecent assaults, Steyn described the footage on Joubert's video tapes as "horrific, explicit, unimaginable and disturbing".
It was the seizure of these tapes, entitled "Young Girls" and "Dreams of Young Girls", by an off-duty police officer on June 16 2004 that led to Joubert's arrest. His modus operandi included filming naked children while swimming in pools, bathing or using the toilets before raping them when their mothers weren't at home.
In other instances, he molested children in the veld. In all these cases he would film the children with a hidden camera, often zooming in on their genitals before raping them. Some of the children have never been identified.
Steyn agreed with the pre-sentencing reports by Dr Bridget Armstrong, a senior psychiatrist at Sterkfontein Hospital, and Dr Gerald Labuschagne, from the police's investigative unit.
Both Armstrong and Labuschagne corroborated that Joubert was "a remorseless and dangerous criminal... with traits of a paedophile, a serial rapist and of bestiality".
Armstrong, who testified in aggravation of sentence on Thursday, said any possibility that Joubert could be rehabilitated was "practically nonexistent".
"He is a psychopath, a paedophile and a sexual predator... and there is a great possibility that he could re-offend, or manipulate the rehabilitation system."
The court also heard that, as a child, Joubert, who is originally from Lusaka in Zambia, was sexually molested by his stepfather, who also forced him to have sex with his sister. It was on the basis of this that his attorney begged for leniency.
Judge Pandya postponed sentencing to October 4.
This was one of the arguments given in mitigation of sentence by his attorney, Charles Thompson, in the Johannesburg High Court on Thursday.
The 49-year-old information technology specialist was convicted in July on 35 counts, including eight of rape, 11 of indecent assault, 14 of crimen injuria, one of contravening the Film and Publications Act and one of possessing counterfeit banknotes.
'Some of his victims were assaulted through his hands'
Joubert, from Muldersdrift, north of Johannesburg, was arrested in October 2004 following a child-molestation rampage dating from 1998. He targeted children between the ages of six and 16.
Thompson said imposing a lengthy sentence would be like a "double-edged sword" if the court considered that the offences were "not one of the worst rapes and (that) great care was taken not to cause any serious harm" to his victims.
He then stunned the court when he said Joubert "would, without admitting guilt, voluntarily submit himself to castration". This, he said, was the noblest argument that substantial and compelling circumstances existed for a lesser sentence.
State prosecutor Jacqueline Steyn was quick to oppose this, calling it "ridiculous and beyond imagination".
"If the state does make that order, his hands should be amputated as well. Some of his victims were assaulted through his hands. There is nothing that justifies imposing a lesser sentence than a life sentence," Steyn said.
'He is a psychopath'
Judge Naren Pandya also pointed to it being an impossible order to grant in terms of the constitution.
Pressing for the minimum sentences of life imprisonment on each of the rape counts and 10 years on the indecent assaults, Steyn described the footage on Joubert's video tapes as "horrific, explicit, unimaginable and disturbing".
It was the seizure of these tapes, entitled "Young Girls" and "Dreams of Young Girls", by an off-duty police officer on June 16 2004 that led to Joubert's arrest. His modus operandi included filming naked children while swimming in pools, bathing or using the toilets before raping them when their mothers weren't at home.
In other instances, he molested children in the veld. In all these cases he would film the children with a hidden camera, often zooming in on their genitals before raping them. Some of the children have never been identified.
Steyn agreed with the pre-sentencing reports by Dr Bridget Armstrong, a senior psychiatrist at Sterkfontein Hospital, and Dr Gerald Labuschagne, from the police's investigative unit.
Both Armstrong and Labuschagne corroborated that Joubert was "a remorseless and dangerous criminal... with traits of a paedophile, a serial rapist and of bestiality".
Armstrong, who testified in aggravation of sentence on Thursday, said any possibility that Joubert could be rehabilitated was "practically nonexistent".
"He is a psychopath, a paedophile and a sexual predator... and there is a great possibility that he could re-offend, or manipulate the rehabilitation system."
The court also heard that, as a child, Joubert, who is originally from Lusaka in Zambia, was sexually molested by his stepfather, who also forced him to have sex with his sister. It was on the basis of this that his attorney begged for leniency.
Judge Pandya postponed sentencing to October 4.
I saw scrrw the constitution. If the sick fuck wants to be castrated, then let him be.
That will do!