‘The father of my child raped my little sister’
A PRIESKA woman who has a child with triple rape accused Shaun Rooi, yesterday told the Northern Cape High Court how he allegedly raped her 10-year-old sister.
According to the woman, Rooi committed the alleged offence in November last year.
“I have a five-year-old with the accused,” the woman told the court yesterday, adding that she lives opposite to Rooi in Plakkerskamp, Prieska.
“On the day of the incident, I was standing by the door when I heard him (Rooi) calling my little sister. She and my child were playing in my yard. My child and my sister both went over to the house of the accused when he called her. I went to lie down and moments later my child came to me asking why the accused was hitting my sister because she was crying.
“I got up and saw my sister, who was crying, come from the accused’s house. When I asked her what was wrong, she told me that the accused had raped her and I sent her to tell our mother.
“The accused was standing in front of his house and asked what the child had said. I told him that she said he had raped her, but he did not respond.”
She stated that she had followed her sister home and they called the police.
The woman also told the court about an incident where Rooi was arrested by police on allegations of rape while the two of them were still in a relationship.
“At the time when my sister was raped, the accused and I were no longer in a relationship. There was an incident in April 2017 when I spent the night at the house of the accused’s grandfather and he (Rooi) went out for a while while I was getting ready for bed. He told me at the time that he was going to the toilet. He took a while and when I looked outside I saw that he was not in the toilet. I went to sleep and the accused returned later. I asked him where he had been and he replied that he had gone to another toilet.”
She said the next morning she saw a suspicious duvet cover in the house. “I asked him about the duvet but he did not respond.”
The woman said that Rooi was later arrested by the police.
“I was busy doing the dishes at the back of the house and the accused was with me. The police came and told him that he did not want to stop raping people. They then took him away,” she said.
Rooi is facing three counts of rape, two counts of housebreaking and one count each of assault and obstructing a police officer in performance of his duties.
The alleged incidents are said to have occurred in Plakkerskamp, Prieska last year.
The charge of obstructing a police officer from performing his duties relates to an incident where Rooi allegedly attempted to stab a police officer when he tried to arrest him.
The trial continues.