'Sunday Rapist' phones tell a story
2012-08-03 14:24
Johannesburg - Cellphones belonging to the so-called 'Sunday rapist' were in use in the areas where teenager Lazanne Farmer was kidnapped and murdered.
"(The phones were) within the vicinity where the victim jumped out and, most possibly, where the pick-up was made," Lieutenant Colonel Andre Neethling told the High Court, sitting in the Palm Ridge Magistrate's Court in Alberton, on Friday.
He was testifying in the trial of Johannes Jacobus Steyn, who is accused of murdering Louise De Waal and Lazanne Farmer.
GPS co-ordinates
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.
He pleaded not guilty to all 37 charges against him.
Neethling was testifying on the GPS co-ordinates of two cellphones registered in Steyn's name and the locations of where Farmer and a 16-year-old friend were kidnapped in Pretoria west on September 5 2010.
Farmer jumped from the moving vehicle and did not survive.
Her friend, now 18, last week testified on how her disguised attacker drove her to a remote location and raped her.
Neethling said the phones both registered on cellphone towers near Steyn's home in Roodepoort at about 07:00 on that September morning, and then moved towards Pretoria on the N14 highway.
"It was definitely (moving) towards Pretoria."
‘Phone then moved towards crime scene’
One of the cellphones next registered at a tower in Danville, west of Pretoria at 09:21.
This was 1.9km from where Farmer jumped from the vehicle, and 3.5km from where the two were kidnapped.
At 09:59 a phone was registered at a Kwaggasrand tower, 289m from were Farmer jumped out of the vehicle.
"The cellphone then moved into the direction of the crime scene."
At 12:48 a phone was picked up 2.2km from where the friend was attacked in Gerhardsville, and was back in the West Rand at about 14:00, Neethling said.
Neethling was cross-referencing the dates and times of all the locations of the alleged 'Sunday Rapist' victims with Steyn's cellphones' GPS co-ordinates.
- SAPA
