Roland Routh
Windhoek
The man, who used to lure unsuspecting young women into a bushy area near the Katutura State Hospital under the pretext that he needed help with a heavily pregnant girlfriend and her luggage before strangling them unconscious and sexually violating them, has been convicted.
Windhoek High Court Judge Alfred Siboleka convicted Jan Rooinasie on eight counts of rape, four counts of attempted murder, two counts of indecent assault and two counts of crimen injuria.
The charges involved the raping of a 13-year-old girl on May 25, 2007, and of repeatedly raping three other women, aged 20 to 24, between March 2 and 22, 2010, after convincing them to help him with his apparent pregnant girlfriend. He also directed various obscenities at his victims.
The judge, however, dismissed the charges of abduction and committing an immoral act with a child under the age of 16 years with regards to the first rape incident that occurred in 2007, saying the complainant testified she agreed
to accompany the accused to his home, as she knew him very well and the charges were thus not sustainable.
According to the judge, the identity of the accused, as the person who committed the sexual offenses against all the complainants, was determined to his satisfaction.
“He did not waylay his victims, pounce on them from behind or during the night, unaware of him approaching, pin them to the ground, strangle them unconscious before they even had the opportunity to see who their assailant is, not at all,” the judge said.
“What happened in this matter was that the accused met each of his victims on different occasions, as they were walking on the road in broad daylight. He came face to face with them, he greeted them nicely and they responded to the greeting. He then started talking, telling them his one false story of asking them to assist, help his wife with the luggage as her pregnancy was so advanced that she was about to give birth along a footpath,” said the judge.
Judge Siboleka went on to say that, according to all the victims, the accused “sweet-talked them”, and that was the reason they were sympathetic with him and felt like assisting their stranded fellow lady who as a fact and in reality did not exist.
“After a victim had agreed to help him, the accused would then proceeded to walk side by side with her for some time, talking to her. He would then lead the victim to a bushy area along the footpath where he had left his ‘ghost wife’. After arriving in the thicket near the Okahandja hiking point, he suddenly took out a knife or screwdriver. He would then grab the victim and forcibly pin her to the ground, strangle her unconscious and while in that condition sexually assault them,” Judge Siboleka narrated.
He further said some of the victims regained their consciousness and found the accused, the same person who had previously asked them for help, lying on top of them having sexual intercourse with them.
“It was during the sexual assault that the victims observed a tattoo of a burning candle on his body with the words ‘verlore seun’ in Afrikaans meaning ‘lost son’ in English,” Judge Siboleka
stated.
He further said it was also during the sexual attacks that the victims noticed that some of the accused’s front teeth were missing. “All these observations were confirmed correct during evidence as during the sexual assaults the accused’s face and that of the victim came even more closer than when they first met the accused and started walking with him,” he said.
“It is on this basis that I am credibly satisfied beyond doubt that the accused had been correctly identified as the person who sexually assaulted each of them separately in the same vicinity,” he further stated.
Rooinasie will now return to court from custody on April 19 for pre-sentencing proceedings.
Mbanga Siyomunji on instructions from Legal Aid Centre represented Rooinasie while Deputy Prosecutor General Karin Esterhuizen appeared on behalf of the State.
Caption (Pic: Rooinasie):
Photo: Roland Routh