A Khorixas resident, who allegedly killed his former girlfriend and mother of his three children to prevent her from testifying in a rape allegation against him, pleaded not guilty before Windhoek High Court Judge Claudia Claasen on Tuesday.

Arnold Khamseb (50) claimed in a plea explanation, read to the court by his Legal Aid lawyer Petrus Grushaber, that the victim stabbed herself.

“The deceased took a knife, and stormed at me. She stabbed towards me. I grabbed her on her arms, and pulled or pushed her, and she fell. In that process, she stabbed herself,” he stated.

He is facing a charge of murder, read with the provisions of the Combating of Domestic Violence Act of 2003, in connection with the death of Sylvia Tatamigu Gorases (46), who succumbed to a stab wound to the right side of her
neck. 

He is further facing a charge of assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm for allegedly assaulting the victim’s brother, Jaspart Kesta Goraseb, during the same altercation. 

In addition, he faces a charge of housebreaking with intent to rape for allegedly breaking into his mother’s house, and forcing open the door to his biological daughter’s room with the intent to rape her. 

This incident allegedly happened on 7 July 2018. 

He was on bail on this charge when he allegedly murdered Gorases on 24 December 2019 to prevent her from testifying in the rape allegation. 

“I struggled myself loose, and ran. I never stabbed or assaulted the complainant in count two in any manner,” he stated. 

He added that when he grabbed and pushed or pulled the victim and she fell
to the ground, he was only defending himself to prevent the continuing assault by her.

With regards to the count of housebreaking with intent to rape, he denied the charge, saying he never broke into his mother’s house to rape the daughter.

State advocate Palmer Khumalo called the victim’s aunt, who lived with her. 

Christine Hans told the court that on that fateful day, she was at her house when she saw the accused arriving. 

“He said ‘if shit comes, let shit comes’ [Sic] before he went around the victim’s house,” the witness narrated through an interpreter. 

She continued that she heard the victim screaming ‘please help me, help me’.

 She then asked the men who were there, including her husband and the victim’s brother, to come to her rescue. 

The victim’s brother then went to the house of the victim, and she could see them wrestling, Hans testified. 

She said she also saw the victim lying on the ground near her zinc house with blood coming from the right-hand side of her neck. 

She added that after the accused managed to free himself from Goraseb, he fled the scene. 

The indictment states that the accused was on the run for three days until he was arrested on 27 December 2019. 

The matter continues tomorrow, and Khamseb remains in custody.

-rrouth@nepc.com.na