Mervin Nguyapeua, a man convicted of 32 rape counts involving 10 minor boys and serving 68 years imprisonment, is in need of a lawyer for his appeal bid. 

Nguyapeua, who is seeking leave from the High Court so he may approach the Supreme Court and appeal his conviction and hefty sentence, said he needs a lawyer to represent him.

“I do not want to represent myself in this case. I have since applied for a lawyer with legal aid but they are yet to get back to me,” said Nguyapeua. 

Judge Kobus Miller postponed the case to 19 July for legal aid.

In March, Judge Alfred Siboleka sentenced Nguyapeua to an effective 68 years imprisonment on 32 counts of rape. 

During the sentencing, the court noted that the cumulative effect of the mandatory 15-year sentence on each count would total 480 years imprisonment, which Siboleka found to be grossly unrealistic, unjust, and inhumane.

These offences were allegedly committed between 2013 to 2016, at the time when he was employed as a caretaker at that school’s hostel.

According to the charge sheet, Nguyapeua allegedly committed the offences while living at the hostel.  

Learners, who resided in the hostel at the time, regarded him as a father figure.

According to the State, the very first incident occurred during the second school term of 2013, when Nguyapeua allegedly raped a 14-year-old boy and further sexually assaulted other boys during 2014, 2015 and in February 2016.

Nine of the boys allegedly raped by Nguyapeua were under the age of 16 when sexual acts were committed with them, according to the indictment. Two of them were 13 years old at the time of the alleged incidents, six of them were 14, and one was 15.

The sexual acts Nguyapeua is accused of having committed by the prosecution include stimulation of the boys’ genitals, and also anal intercourse.

- mamakali@nepc.com.na