Ordered girls to strip and dance for him
A man who forced three 14-year-old girls to strip naked and dance for him, whilst recording the whole ordeal on his phone, has been handed a suspended jail sentence.
Appearing before Francistown Magistrates Court on Tuesday morning, Keereditswe Botsalo pulled an unexpected u-turn.
Having previously protested his innocence, the 27-year-old Matsiloje man pleaded guilty to two separate counts of indecent assault.
Explaining his change of plea, a visibly nervous Botsalo claimed he had only fully understood the accusations against him when he read the charge sheet in prison.
Stammering as he spoke, Botsalo admitted that on 3 August 2020, at a house in Matsiloje’s Letseara ward, he instructed a teenage girl to undress before taking a video of her dancing in the nude.
He further confirmed that on 23 August, at the same residence, he locked two 14-year-old females in the kitchen, before ordering them to get naked and dance for him. Once again, he admitted to filming the entire episode.
It was also heard that when one of the girls refused to undress, Botsalo warned her ‘to do as he pleases’.
His actions were eventually uncovered by an elder sister to one of the girls, who happened to see the video on her friend’s phone.
“I did not know I was committing a crime, I thought I was just playing with the girls!” maintained Botsalo, who begged court to be lenient on him as this was the first time he had ever broken the law.
“Please show mercy. I am young, my dad is dead and I am the one who is looking after my mother, who is ill,” he said.
It was a plea that bore mixed results.
Presiding over the case, Magistrate Chandapiwa Molefhi noted Botsalo’s actions had ’embarrassed’ the three girls and ‘destroyed their dignity’.
She then sentenced the accused to a total of six years in prison. However, Molefhi wholly suspended the punishment, meaning Botsalo will not go to jail providing he does not commit another offence in that time.
While he was spared the slammer, Botsalo did not get off scot-free, with the Magistrate ordering he be lashed six times on the back.
He first has to undergo a doctor’s examination to ensure he is medically fit to receive his lashes.
Should Botsalo fail the test and be deemed unfit for a whipping, Molefhi ruled he would be locked up for the next 16 months instead.