WC policeman handed 10-year sentence for raping pregnant woman

CAPE TOWN - A Western Cape police officer convicted of raping a pregnant woman has been sentenced to 10 years behind bars in the Wynberg Magistrates Court.

In July 2018, former Constable Jerome Coetzee and two other police officers searched the victim's house for drugs and the woman was arrested.

Coetzee then dropped his colleagues at the police station, while the complainant, who was 18 years old, remained in the back of the vehicle.

He then drove to a secluded area, where he assaulted the woman.

Police watchdog IPID's Phaladi Shuping: "A case of rape was opened at Strand Police Station and IPID took it over for investigation. He was identified and charged. He was dismissed in March last year after disciplinary action."

Coetzee was the second police officer to be sentenced for rape this week.

The Montagu Regional Court handed former Warrant Officer Frederick Soldaat a 25-year prison sentence for raping a 15-year-old girl in Montague, in the trauma room of a police station, in August 2016.