An Eastern Cape rapist who lured women on Facebook by promising them modelling contracts has been sentenced to life in prison.
The man from Qonce is alleged to have used the same modus operandi which convicted jail bird Thabo Bester used.
33-year-old Khululekani Ngqeza lured his victims by masquerading as a photographer for modelling agencies through Facebook.
He would then arrange a meeting with his victims before raping them.
NPA regional spokesperson, Anelisa Ngcakani said the convicted rapist raped a 17-year-old in Port Elizabeth before driving himself on another teenager also aged 17 in Komani.
She says he was arrested on 19 May in the Komani area and made his first appearance in the Queenstown Magistrate’s Court two days later where he was released on R2 000 bail.
It is stated that he even had a name for his fake modeling agency known as Raw Talent.
After taking his victims, he would go on to phone them and advice them that a company was interested in them and they would go for a photo shoot.
The shoots were done at a cheap BNB.
After the 17-year-old victim from Port Elizabeth positively identified him during a formal identification parade, he was also arrested and charged for the PE incident by members of the Mount Road Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences Unit.
His life sentence has already begun and the judge in the case was not short of harsh words when handing down the sentence.
Makhanda high court judge John Smith found that Ngqeza’s consistent modus operandi showed that his rapes and trafficking crimes were not random acts of criminality but rather a scheme to recruit and lure naive young girls into situations where he could exploit them.