Necrophilia shock in Karoo

2004-03-19 23:09

Annelie Muller

Grahamstown - Shocking allegations regarding necrophilia, in which a person has sex with a corpse, are being investigated in a Karoo town.

Superintendent Sharlene Otto, a DNA specialist, told the High Court's Judge Cecil Somyalo on Friday there existed a discrepancy in the time of the death of the victim and the time semen was deposited into the body.

Because of the sensitivity of the investigation, Malherbe Marais SC, deputy director of public prosecutions, asked that neither the identity of the victim, nor the town where the offence allegedly took place, be made known.

The charges against Aubrey Peacock, 29, followed an alleged knife attack on two women in May last year.

One was stabbed to death, while the other managed to flee despite a wound to the stomach.

The woman's body was found naked in a street in the neigbhourhood on May 11, the day after the attack.

Peacock, who was facing murder and rape charges, was eliminated by means of semen samples taken on May 15. The rape charge against him was subsequently withdrawn on Wednesday this week.

'Semen depositied after her death'

According to Otto's testimony, the body had been in the mortuary for four days before semen samples were taken from the vagina to determine whether the woman had been raped, and by whom.

"There was an exceptionally large amount of semen in the vagina, and it was determined it was only between 12 hours and 72 hours old."

She said the conclusion could be drawn that the semen was deposited inside the body after the victim's death, while the body remained in the same position as when the post-mortem was done.

Ten years ago a police reservist by the name of Rademeyer was found guilty on five charges of necrophilia in Port Elizabeth.

His attraction to the dead led to him to break into the Gelvandale mortuary where he had sex with bodies he found in the freezers.

To catch him, police installed a video camera in the mortuary and caught him in the act.

Necrophilia is an attraction, especially sexually, to the dead.

According to the Crime Library on the internet, the most common motive for necrophilia is to have sex with someone without the fear of rejection.

Studies done on the subject revealed that perpetrators worked mostly in mortuaries.

- Die Burger