Clean shave led to rapist

2008-12-03 22:21

Cape Town - A Navy requirement that staff had to be clean shaven, led police to alleged serial rapist Tsediso Letsoenya, the Cape High Court heard on Wednesday.

Letsoenya, an Able Seaman in the Navy at the time of his arrest, is on trial before Judge Abe Motala and assessors on 104 charges, including 39 of rape and 33 of indecent assault.

One of the investigators, Joshua Losper, told the court he and a police captain took over the investigation.

It was decided to form a task team to interview all the alleged victims again, he said.

From the interviews it transpired that the suspect was always clean shaven and had either a brush cut hairstyle, or was bald. This led the team to the conclusion that the suspect was possibly in the employ of one of the armed forces, or the police.

Losper said many of the alleged rapes or indecent assaults happened in the Goodwood area, in Cape Town's northern suburbs.

For this reason the team focused on the Wingfield Naval Base, also in Goodwood.

Losper said they interviewed the Master at Arms (a senior naval officer), who suggested that Letsoenya, based at Wingfield, could be the suspect they were looking for.

The Master at Arms provided the team with a photograph of Letsoenya from his staff files, which the team used to hold a photo-parade.

In a photo-parade, as opposed to an identification parade, the victims are shown an album of photographs from which to identify the assailant.

The photo-parade, together with a spent cartridge found at one of the scenes of the crime, provided a positive link to Letsoenya, he said.

Ballistic testing revealed that the cartridge had in fact been fired from Letsoenya's Navy firearm.

The team later visited Letsoenya's home where investigators recovered a number of cellphones and other items stolen from victims during the alleged rapes and indecent assaults.

The case continues on Thursday.

- SAPA