'I had sex with Knysna victims'
2006-05-27 10:48
Knysna - The accused in the murders of two young women in Knysna on Friday confessed in court to having had "sexual contact" with them on the nights that they were murdered.
Heinrich van Rooyen, 24, said in a supplementary statement that was handed in during his bail application that he had had anal sex with Ms Jessica Wheeler, 19, in the parking area of the club where he was employed as disc jockey on the night before she was murdered.
He also confessed that, on the night of the murder of Victoria Stadler, he had "touched her intimately" in her car and that she masturbated him.
The supplementary statement was deposited as explanation of the reason why the semen of the accused was found on the bodies of the murdered women.
The defence also deposited a statement by Nadia Nell, Van Rooyen's communal wife and mother of his two children - Dylan, 3, and Sherwin, 1.
In her statement she says that she has been suffering since Van Rooyen had been taken into custody.
Misses his children
During a recess Van Rooyen told Die Burger that he was pining for his children.
He said: "The worst is when I talk to Dylan in the mornings and he says: I love you, daddy."
In another statement obtained from a business woman in Knysna, a well-known gangster is tied to Stadler.
The defence also endeavoured to indicate that there was a connection between Stadler's murder and that of Peter McHelm, who was murdered the day after Stadler.
Suspects have already been apprehended.
According to hearsay these suspects, in terms of an extra-judicial and unsigned statement, are also implicated in the Stadler murder.
Although the contents of the statement have not been made public, and have not been entered as evidence, Trollip said that an in-depth investigation would be ordered.
Daan Dercksen, for the defence, made use of an aerial photograph to indicate that the house of McHelm, the house of the gangster and that of Stadler fell in the radius of the murder scene.
Dercksen reduced the evidence of a woman named Lisa, who Van Rooyen allegedly tried to seduce in 2003 by giving her a spiked drink of chocochino chocolate, and that of a woman that was allegedly raped by Van Rooyen in 2003, to carrying almost no weight at all.
Finally the only real evidence introduced by the prosecution amounted to the DNA samples that connected Van Rooyen without any doubt to the victims.
Dercksen compared Van Rooyen with Valentino, Casanova and Don Juan de Marco, against the image of the prosecution that compared him with Peter Sutcliff (the Yorkshire Ripper).
Trollip referred to the accused as a serial murderer and rapist.
The bail application will continue on Monday, when a finding will probably be made.
"I now feel the case is moving in some direction" said Mrs Hannetjie Stadler, Victoria's mother, at the court on Friday.