Justice delayed yet again for complainant in GBV case
A Cape Town lawyer has been fighting for almost two years to have her ex-boyfriend stand trial for assault after he allegedly beat her up when she claimed to have caught him cheating.
What had started out as a romantic gesture when Shahied Abader tracked Karin Louis down on Facebook, asking to meet up as they were both from Gelvandale, and he had been in love with her all his life, ended badly when Louis was left battered and bruised. This week, the case was finally brought back to the Gqeberha magistrate’s court, but without the docket it could not be enrolled, leaving her disappointed once more.
Speaking to the Weekend Post from her home in Cape Town, Louis, 45, said she felt dejected and, though a practising attorney herself, she was slowly losing hope in the justice system.
“Is this the justice system I uphold and have dedicated my life’s work to?
“No wonder women don’t report abuse. I’m an educated and independent woman, if this can happen to me, how much worse off are women who are of lesser means? “This is an absolute travesty. “I hate abuse of any kind, but especially against women and children.
“How ironic that I am now one of those.
“I have, however, decided that it’s God’s way of giving women a voice.
“I will not lie down and roll over,” she said.
Recalling the events leading up to November 1 2021, Louis said she was still in shock about what had allegedly happened.
The divorced mother of two had moved to Cape Town in 2008 to start a new life with her daughters.
While living in Cape Town, Abader had contacted her on Facebook, claiming that he knew her from when she had lived around the corner from him in Gelvandale.
“I was shocked that he lived there all my life and I did not
know. He then proceeded to tell me how in love he was with me all those years ago,” Louis said.
But, she said, there were red flags from the start.
“[H]e exaggerated and lied a lot,” she claimed.
In the lead-up to the alleged assault, Louis, who was visiting Abader in Gelvandale, said she had confronted him about the lies he had allegedly told her.
The confrontation allegedly turned ugly when Abader wanted her out his house, prompting her to call her cousin to fetch her.
However, Abader quickly changed his mind and begged her to stay and work things out, which she did.
Two days later, they went out for drinks where Louis met up with an old school friend and two other women, who she later invited back to the house.
She said back at Abader’s home, she walked in on her boyfriend and one of the women kissing.
“I went upstairs and told everyone what had happened and that they should leave.
“After they left, [Abader] was tipsy and I took his phone from him.
“He proceeded to chase me around the TV room upstairs but kept on falling over his own feet.
“He injured himself badly and then locked me out when I went downstairs for a drink of water.
“I notified my daughter in Ireland and she called the neighbourhood watch and police.
“I needed my asthma pump and he refused to give it to me,” Louis alleged.
When the neighbourhood watch members arrived, they told Abader to go to bed and let Louis have access to her belongings upstairs as her flight back to Cape Town had been booked for the next day.
According to Louis, after they left she went upstairs and started packing while Abader lay on his bed.
“We were not really talking. “I remember asking him what he was thinking and saying insulting things about him while I was packing.
“Then the police came,” she said.
Louis said at that stage Abader begged her not to get the police involved and said they should talk to sort things out. She agreed.
Once the police left, Louis went back upstairs and sat on an ottoman in Abader’s bedroom, waiting to chat.
“Instead, he put the lights on and accused me of causing his injuries and then he [allegedly] headbutted me.
“I was in utter shock. Never had I thought he would [allegedly] hit me.
“I was dizzy. But my hell had only started.
“He kicked and beat me up with his fists,” she alleged.
“All I did was try cover my face while lying in a foetal position. At one point, he [allegedly] broke a glass with juice in it over my head,” Louis said.
She eventually made it out the house and to a place of safety, before returning to Cape Town the next day.
But her ordeal was not over. She reported a criminal complaint against Abader but he was only arrested six months later.
“I was livid. Especially because he told people I was crazy and was fabricating the whole incident.
“He actually reported a case of assault against me before I laid my charges.
“His case was thrown out, though,” she said.
By September last year, the case against Abader was provisionally struck from the roll after various postponements, with representations made to the deputy director of public prosecutions by the state and the defence proving fruitless.
“This is when I went to see the control prosecutor and he was also in shock. He said he gave instructions that the matter was trial-ready [a long time ago].
“He could not understand all the [postponements] asked for by the police for further investigation.
“He immediately requested the docket and put the matter back on the court roll,” she said.
Abader was eventually subpoenaed to appear in the city’s magistrate’s court on Monday, and while he did show up at court, his case was never enrolled because the police docket was not at court.
Defence attorney Danie Gouws said he had since made thorough and substantial representations to the national director of public prosecutions and was awaiting a response.
“My client [Abader] is innocent. He was at court on Monday but the matter was never enrolled.
“An innocent man’s time and money was further wasted by the state,” Gouws said.