Child rape accused to be evaluated

DOUBLE child rape accused Moses Monnapule will spend the next 30 days under psychiatric observation at West End Hospital to determine if he is fit to stand trial.

Monnapule was charged with kidnapping and raping two girls, aged six and eight, in June 2015.

It is believed that the accused lured the girls from their homes in Kagisho and locked them in his shanty in Madiba Square overnight where he allegedly raped them.

The case was referred to the Northern Cape High Court in January after the matter was initially removed from the roll in the Kimberley Magistrate’s Court in March last year, due to outstanding DNA results.

Senior State Advocate Catherine Jansen told the Northern Cape High Court on Friday that the Department of Health had finalised the arrangements in sourcing a second private psychiatrist, Dr Moahloli Enoch Seitshiro from Bloemfontein, to serve on the forensic observation panel along with Dr Zygmunt Piotrokwski.

Arrangement

“The psychiatric observation will take place at West End Hospital and not at Kimberley Correctional Services, by way of a special arrangement.”

She requested a postponement until May 4 to allow for the new report to be made available to the court.

Jansen indicated that the psychiatrists on the first panel that had evaluated Monnapule, namely Dr Keith Kirimi and Dr Gape Reginald Moroe, would not be able to serve on the panel.

The Department of Health had terminated the services of Dr Moroe in 2016 after it was found that he had been suspended from the Health Professional Council of South Africa in 2013 and was not permitted to treat patients or practice in the medical profession.

The psychiatric report was therefore declared invalid.

The matter is being heard before Judge Bulelwa Pakati and the accused is being represented by Advocate Dirk van Tonder from Legal Aid South Africa.