Mentally disabled victim may testify

THE case against a Port Elizabeth man charged with the rape of a mentally disabled woman took an unexpected turn yesterday when the high court judge hearing the matter indicated he would reconsider his previous ruling that the alleged victim not take the stand.

On Monday, Judge Jannie Eksteen agreed with state prosecutor Advocate Ilse Loots’s submissions that the woman was not competent to testify in court, based on a submission by clinical psychologist Isabel Marais.

But yesterday, Eksteen said he was reconsidering the request based on a recent Constitutional Court case. He did not elaborate further. “I am happy to relook at the issue in due course,” he said.

The mother of the 25-year-old victim then took the stand, detailing what she remembered of the night of June 4 last year when friends, family and church members were at their Bethelsdorp home to celebrate her other daughter’s 21st birthday.

After looking for the victim, they found her screaming and shouting.

“She came to me screaming loudly . . . she pulled at me . . . I asked her what happened and she said ‘he hurt me down there’. I asked who had hurt her and she said Nathan,” the mother recalled.

On Monday, the court heard how the victim’s uncle, 36, had allegedly caught Nathan Fourie, 28, with his pants down just after the alleged attack.

The trial continues.