Ex-cop in dock for raping kids

He sought out girls from Soweto to rape

A HIGH-RANKING Ekurhuleni metro cop, Adam Cummings, allegedly spent more than a decade sexually grooming a friend of his infant son.

After allegedly raping her on multiple occasions, he eventually blackmailed her into finding other children and teenagers to assault sexually.

These are claims by the now 24-year-old woman, who is charged alongside Cummings with the rape and trafficking of two teenagers and a nine-year-old girl.

Cummings, a former superintendent in the security division at the Ekurhuleni metro police, and Tebogo Johanna Maregele are on trial at the South Gauteng High Court in Joburg.

The State claims the pair allegedly kidnapped their targets from in and around Soweto, took them to secluded areas to allow Cummings to rape them before trying to buy their silence.

This week, the State revealed the investigating officer in the case, Mantsha Raphesu, took a statement from Maregele after she was arrested in 2015.

The lengthy statement revealed that Maregele was eight-years-old when she first met the superintendent in 2004, because she had become friendly with his mistress and young son.

In much the same way as his future victims alleged, Cummings took Maregele to an abandoned area and forced her to have intercourse, before telling her that she had to keep the incident a secret.

Even after she moved from Tembisa to Sedibeng, she stayed in communication with Cummings, whom she claims raped her again on two separate occasions in 2007.

When she moved to her mother in Soweto in 2009, when she was 15, she claimed they again had intercourse, a pattern that continued until she was 18.

It was around that time that Cummings allegedly recruited her to find teenagers or children that he could rape, a proposition to which she agreed.

The statement details the incidents where she found the victims of the current criminal trial, as well as alleged sexual incidents with other teenagers.

When Cummings became suspicious that Maregele might open up to the police about the rapes, he asked her to send an incriminating picture that he eventually used to blackmail her into silence.

When the statement was written, Maregele claimed she witnessed Cummings beating someone who had crossed him, and that she feared for her own life.

This week, Raphesu testified that he tried to get Maregele into a witness protection programme, after both of her legs were broken while in custody.

While he did not elaborate on how the injuries occurred, he said she said she was being threatened by Cummings following their arrests, and ultimately refused to enter witness protection.

It’s understood the young woman also refused to take a plea bargain to testify against her co-accused, and has also chosen not to take the stand.

Cummings testified on Wednesday, denying the rape incidents with the alleged 15-year-old and nine-year-old victims.

However, he admitted to an extra-marital affair with the 16-yearold victim, saying they entered into a sexual relationship the year before the alleged incident.

The trial continues.