Evil lurked inside the innocence of an ice-cream van
● He was polite and respectful, telling his victims he was going to “make love” to them. That is how witnesses and victims describe a man dubbed the Balaclava Rapist.
Yet he made mothers watch as he raped their daughters.
A 35-year-old man, who allegedly used his ice-cream van to scout for victims, will go on trial on July 30. He has already made several appearances in the eMalahleni Magistrate’s Court.
He is alleged to be behind a 14-year crime spree in which 36 women and girls were raped and assaulted in their homes in the middle-class suburb of Vosman.
All the assaults, say court officials and investigators, occurred within a few blocks of the man’s home, where he lived with his mother.
“He would know which houses had young women and single mothers. He knew his victims by name. He would spend months scouting them out, and then pounce,” said a police source.
He said that in almost every attack, the man would tell his victims that he wanted to make love to them.
“In some of the attacks, which occurred at the victims’ homes, he would make mothers watch, or boyfriends watch him rape their girlfriends.”
The man was arrested at his home in May last year after police received information on a rape case from 2009.
During his arrest numerous items that he allegedly collected from his victims were found in his house.