State to oppose bail in serial rape case

THE 24-year-old suspected serial rapist stood defiant in the dock of the Khayelitsha Magistrate’s Court after he was caught by police in the Eastern Cape earlier this week.

The man, who cannot be named until he has pleaded, faced Magistrate Carmen Wyngaard as State prosecutor Leandre Spielman read out his bail profile.

Spielman told the court the State would oppose bail against a background of four cases to which the man may be linked. DNA had been taken from the victims, and tests were ongoing. Spielman said that in 2012 an 18-year-old victim reported a rape incident to a family friend. Tests were done the same day and the rape was confirmed. The accused also has other convictions and a six-month suspended sentence following his arrest in

The accused allegedly followed his victims

Stutterheim this year. He was arrested in Stutterheim this week after a warrant for his arrest was issued this month.

According to police spokesman Captain Frederick van Wyk, the accused allegedly followed his victims early in the morning as they were walking to school, then threatened them with a knife. He robbed them of their belongings before allegedly taking them to a deserted area nearby, where he raped them. It is alleged that between September 2011 and August 2012 five girls aged between 10 and 18 were raped and robbed of cellphones and money in Harare, in Khayelitsha.

Wyngaard postponed the case to November 15, pending an ID parade for one of the other possible charges and to November 17 for a formal bail application, pending further investigations.

asanda.sokanyile@inl.co.za