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New raps for Sheldean accused
25/03/2008 13:31 - (SA)
Johannesburg - Two additional charges have been added to those against the 25-year-old Pretoria West man accused of murdering and raping seven-year-old Sheldean Human in February last year.
The trial was delayed in the Pretoria High Court on Tuesday morning because of the extra charges, but Judge Chris Eksteen told the accused's council he would not grant an extended delay in the trial for consultation.
"I think we should start because it appears the longer we wait, the more charges are added", he told defence council Khomotso Tlouane.
The accused has not yet pleaded to charges of murder, abduction, two of rape, one of indecent assault and one of the illegal possession of dagga.
The state claims the accused had been in the company of Sheldean and a seven-year-old friend on February 18 last year.
The three of them had left Sheldean's home, later that afternoon without the permission of her mother.
According to a charge sheet, he had taken Sheldean to an open piece of veld where he raped and then strangled her, before throwing her body into a manhole.
Her badly decomposed body was found 15 days later in a storm water ditch in the veld behind the Pretoria fresh produce market. The cause of her death could not be determined because of the decomposed state of her body.
The state further alleged that the accused had between June 2006, and February 2007 repeatedly raped, indecently assaulted and sodomised Sheldean's friend.
The girl was due to testify in camera later during the trial.
The trial continues.
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