'Sunday Rapist' straight-faced in court
2012-07-31 22:19
Johannesburg - Jaco Steyn, dubbed the 'Sunday rapist' sat straight-faced as four of his alleged victims recalled details of their attacks on Tuesday.
This brought the number of his alleged victims who had testified in the South Gauteng High Court, sitting in the Palm Ridge Magistrate's Court in Alberton, to seven.
The court ordered that they not be identified, and all but one testified in camera.
Steyn is accused of murdering schoolgirls Louise de Waal and Lazanne Farmer. He is also charged with 11 counts of rape, 10 of sexual assault, 10 of kidnapping, one of attempted sexual assault, one of attempted kidnapping, and two of assault, which took place between 2008 and 2011.
He has pleaded not guilty to all the charges.
The first of the alleged victims decided not to testify in camera on Tuesday. She was the only one.
The 20-year-old woman, who was 18 at the time, recalled how she was almost kidnapped while walking to a cafe in Potchefstroom on August 2010.
She was with her 11-year-old brother when a bakkie stopped next to them. She managed to fight off her assailant, wrestling with him on the grass.
The woman started crying during her testimony and Judge Sita Kolbe told her she would feel better if she told the court what had happened.
She smiled and continued. She told the court she instructed her brother to fetch their father. The attack happened two houses from theirs.
"I kicked him [the attacker] and closed the [bakkie] door on him and ran home."
Keep quiet
Next an 18-year-old woman described her kidnap and rape in Vanderbijlpark in February 2010.
"His words were that I should keep quiet or I'll get hurt," she said.
The court adjourned for five minutes to allow her to compose herself. A counsellor was allowed to sit with her during the rest of her testimony.
The woman, who was 16 at the time of the attack, was on her way back from a cafe when a white bakkie stopped in front of her. Her disguised kidnapper pointed a gun at her and forced her into the vehicle, she said.
He pulled a balaclava over her head and drove her to an unknown location. He tied her hands to the passenger door handle.
"He got onto my lap and pulled my pants down to my knees... He held my one leg in the air and got on top of me."
When asked how she was coping after the rape, she answered: "I think about it a lot, and it feels like I can't trust anyone."
A 15-year-old girl said she got over it, but still had nightmares sometimes about him. The teenager, who was 12 at the time, said she was heading home from a shop in Potchefstroom in November 2009 when a man jumped out of the bakkie with a gun.
She initially thought it was a joke. He blindfolded her with a red balaclava and drove her to a unknown location.
Her father testified that she did not cry when he picked her up after the assault, but he could see something was wrong.
"She has done better than we thought," he said.
Must co-operate
The last of Steyn's alleged victims to be called to the stand on Tuesday was an 18-year-old woman. She confidently testified in detail how she walked from her school in Rustenburg on a Monday in June 2009 when she was kidnapped. She was 15 at the time.
"He said there were a few things I needed to do for him. I must co-operate or he would rape me. If I did he wouldn't."
He pulled a black balaclava over her head and drove away with her. She explained how he fondled and assaulted her before ordering her to stand up.
"He rubbed against me... When he was done with me I felt something running down my legs... His semen ran down my legs."
He used a towel to wipe it off.
"I'm afraid to go anywhere alone," she told the court.
Her mother testified how her daughter hysterically phoned her and said she was in a ditch.
"She was very shocked, very emotional, and she cried a lot."
The trial continues on Thursday.
- SAPA
