Windhoek High Court Judge Dinnah Usiku this week convicted Gavin Gawanab, who raped several girls until his arrest in 2018.
He was found guilty on 14 of the 23 counts he faced.
He faced 23 counts, including rape of minors, attempted murder, assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm, assault, attempted rape, indecent assault, kidnapping, housebreaking with intent to rape and rape, as well as crimen injuria.
Gawanab’s crime spree of sexually assaulting underage girls started in December 2012.
It continued until he was arrested in November 2018 after he raped a 10-year-old girl and cut open her genitals.
He was out on bail on the previous charges when he pounced on his latest victim.
He pleaded not guilty to all charges at the start of his trial and put the onus on the State to prove every allegation against him.
Gawanab was convicted on a charge of rape in connection with the 10-year-old girl, whose private parts he cut with a knife.
However, he was acquitted on the further charges of attempted murder and assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm (GBH) because it would have been a duplication of convictions.
He was further convicted on another two counts of rape, including housebreaking with intent to rape and three counts of attempted rape, including one read with the Riotous Assemblies Act; two charges of assault GBH.
Other charges include four counts of assault by threat, one count of kidnapping and one count of crimen injuria.
Regarding the various charges of attempted murder, the judge said it was the modus operandi of the accused to subdue his victims and have coercive intercourse with them.
The two separate criminal transactions thus constitute one continuous criminal act and cannot be regarded as distinct offences.
He said that the actions of the accused to strangle his victims to subdue them constitute a duplication of the charges, and he must be acquitted on those charges.
Although most of his victims were minors, the judge remarked, they gave candid and straightforward evidence and were not shaken under cross-examination.
“They were not evasive and did not give the court the impression that they were saying things to conceal the truth. As a result, I find their evidence credible in all material aspects,” Judge Usiku stated.
The judge found that Gawanab was positively identified as the culprit by several witnesses.
The judge also established that the State proved beyond a reasonable doubt that he committed the offences for which he was convicted.
She further said that she found the evidence of the State witnesses trustworthy, as they corroborated each other in material respects.
Gawanab is represented by Mbanga Siyomunji on the instructions of Legal Aid and the State by Deputy Prosecutor General Innocencia Nyoni and Palmer Khumalo.
He remains in custody at the section for trial-awaiting inmates at the Windhoek Correctional Facility.
Gawanab will return to court for pre-sentencing procedures on 18 August.