- The alleged killer of Tazne van Wyk, 8, will go on trial in the Western Cape High Court on 31 May.
- Moyhdian Pangarker nodded his understanding of the proceedings before being led back to Pollsmoor Prison in Cape Town.
- He faces 20 charges relating to violent crimes against women.
Alleged child killer Moyhdian Pangarker will go on trial for the murder of young Tazne van Wyk at the end of May.
The State and defence confirmed that the matter was ready to be heard during a pre-trial conference in the Western Cape High Court on Friday, just more than a year after the little girl was found dead in a stormwater drain outside Worcester in February 2020.
Pangarker, dressed in a hoodie and clutching his hands in the dock, nodded his understanding of the proceedings. He searched for a familiar face in the public gallery but didn't appear to find one.
Prosecutor Lenro Badenhorst said the trial would commence on 31 May. It was anticipated that the matter would run over three weeks and into the court recess, Badenhorst said, and the trial would resume thereafter.
Pangarker remains behind bars. He is being held at Pollsmoor Prison in Cape Town.
He had been cornered in Cradock in the Eastern Cape after going on the run for nearly two weeks after being identified as a person of interest in the 8-year-old's kidnapping.
He had been transported back to Cape Town from the Eastern Cape and had led police to where Tazne's body was eventually found. She had been raped and mutilated. A blunt object had also been used to hit her on the head, neck and pelvis.
READ | The scene where little Tazne van Wyk's body was found
Pangarker's criminal record dates back to the 1980s. He was granted parole after serving half of a 10-year sentence for culpable homicide and kidnapping, but absconded a year before Tazne's murder.
She had gone missing on 7 February 2020. She was last seen walking to a tuck shop across the street from her home in Connaught Estate, Elsies River.
Pangarker was their neighbour.
ALSO READ | 'They are broken' - Tazne van Wyk's family, community reeling after her body is found in drain
He faces 20 charges relating to violent crimes against women, with the State's summary of facts submitting that he migrated between cities, including Johannesburg, East London and Gqeberha, with victims he had already attacked.
According to the prosecution, one of his alleged victims was eventually "subdued" into a relationship with him, and the other, who he had allegedly raped and beaten, left.
He allegedly also stripped naked one of the children and held her captive, threatening to kill her if she told anybody, News24 previously reported.
The cases he will go on trial for in the High Court include punching women, repeatedly raping a girl under the age of 16, kidnapping and murder.
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