Seven years lost after ‘sextortion’ trap destroyed brother’s life
· Citizen
A woman whose brother spent seven years in prison for a rape he allegedly did not commit has lifted the lid on what she said was a disturbing pattern of “sextortion”, that she says destroyed her elder brother’s life.
Thembi, not her real name, said in 2007 her brother, who was 31 years old at the time, fell victim to the scheme after a woman he had been dating demanded R5 000 following a sexual encounter.
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Brother served seven years for rape he denies
“At the time, he was unemployed and unable to pay. When he said he did not have the money, she told him to ‘plan like a man’ or face prison,” she said.
He was ultimately arrested, charged and convicted.
Thembi, from Bushbuckridge in Mpumalanga, said her brother has not recovered from the ordeal.
“He is completely broken. He refuses to talk about what happened to him,” she said.
She said her brother, whom she said was a good person and had never committed any crime or troubled anyone in his life, lost seven years of his life languishing in prison. He was released on parole in 2020.
Lost seven years
“These are years taken away from him under dubious circumstances,” she said.
“He had slept with the woman before, but it was only this one morning when she demanded money. That is when everything changed.”
In a troubling twist, Thembi claims the same woman later accused another man of rape under similar circumstances after he, too, allegedly failed to pay her following a sexual encounter.
Just over a year ago, the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation, also known as the Hawks, arrested two suspects after they allegedly demanded R15 000 from the mother of a man they falsely accused of rape.
The suspects, one a woman, had connived and opened a rape case against him at the Soshanguve police station, north of Pretoria, and he was arrested.
Police set a trap
The mother alerted the police and a trap was set, with the duo nabbed in Pretoria central just after collecting the cash from the accused’s mother.
In 2023, North West police arrested a 29-year-old woman for perjury after registering a false rape case against her ex-boyfriend.
She confessed just before a medical examination that she reported the case to extort money from him.