Hospital rape accused remanded
2005-02-09 13:47
Pretoria - A Mozambican man accused of the attack and murder of an elderly woman at a Pretoria hospital appeared at the Pretoria Magistrates' Court on Wednesday and was remanded in custody until he obtained legal representation.
Loui Emmanuel Sipoge appeared on preliminary charges of rape and murder and was to return to court on February 25.
The State indicated its intent to oppose bail, as the man was a foreigner. Sipoge claimed to be an airconditioning technician based in Johannesburg and that he had followed his father to South Africa 10 years ago.
Police spokesperson Inspector Percy Morokane said the police were still investigating allegations that the woman had not been raped at all.
"The police do not deal with speculations. We will investigate the incident fully and from that, establish what happened," Morokane said.
The 30-year-old was found by nurses at the Pretoria Academic hospital after he allegedly attacked a 65-year-old patient earlier this week.
The woman died several hours after the attack. She had been recovering from an operation for ovarian cancer at the time. It appears the man simply wandered into the woman's ward and attacked her.
The nurses heard the woman's screams and rushed to see what was wrong. Not expecting anyone in the ward at that time of the morning, they too yelled on running into the alleged rapist, said Morokane.
The commotion alerted a security guard, who arrested the fleeing man, he said.
- SAPA