Mentally disabled woman need not testify in rape case

A PORT Elizabeth man will stand trial for raping a mentally disabled woman without his alleged victim having to take the stand, after a court ruled she did not have the mental capacity to testify.

The ruling, a first for state advocate Ilse Loots, who has been prosecuting such cases for more than 20 years, saw the 25-year-old woman’s uncle called to testify instead.

The man told the Port Elizabeth High Court how he had caught Nathan Fourie, 28, with his pants down just moments after the alleged attack last year.

The man, 36, whose name is being withheld to protect the identity of his niece, said they had been at his sister’s home in Bethelsdorp on June 4 to celebrate a family member’s 21st birthday.

It was mostly just family at the gathering, but Fourie arrived there some time later.

He said after a while, they noticed that both Fourie and his niece were missing.

“We immediately went looking for her and then [another family member] said she had heard her shouting [from] the property next door.”

As he relayed the events in detail, Fourie turned in the dock and listened intently.

His parents sat in the public gallery behind him.

Earlier yesterday, he pleaded not guilty to a count of rape.

The uncle said he quickly went next door – a dilapidated house with no roof – and found his niece and Fourie standing opposite one another, both partially undressed.

He said Fourie’s pants were around his ankles and that, on spotting him, he quickly pulled them up.

“[My niece] was crying. When she saw me she said she wanted to go home,” he said. “I turned to Nathan and I asked him ‘why did you do this to her? She is not a normal child’.”

The man said Fourie smashed his hand through one of the windows to break off a shard of glass and threatened to stab him.

The matter was reported to the police that evening.

Earlier, clinical psychologist Isabel Marais said after assessing the complainant, her recommendations were that she would not be able to testify in a court of law.

“In a very safe environment she can tell a story, but her concentration is so bad that she jumps between five stories at once,” she said.

“However, she becomes agitated in an environment where she feels unsafe.”

Judge Jannie Eksteen agreed with Loots’s submissions that the woman was incompetent of testifying in court.

The trial continues today.