WINDHOEK – The man accused of the brutal rape and murder of 13-year-old Rachel Vanessa Boois in the Omdel location of Henties Bay during the period 3 – 4 May 2014 has a case to answer, Windhoek High Court Acting Judge Alfred Siboleka ruled on Wednesday last week.
The judge dismissed a Section 174 application that Jandre Jacques de Klerk launched after the state closed its case against him.
The accused faces one count of murder, three counts of rape, one count of violating a dead body in addition to a count of housebreaking with intent to rape and rape.
According to the state he raped Boois in a half-built house twice before he broke her neck and stuck a stick in her private parts.
De Klerk pleaded not guilty to all charges at the start of his trial.
In a plea explanation De Klerk submitted to court, he denies he was with the deceased during the time she was raped and murdered, but admitted that he had consensual intercourse with the 13-year-old a few days prior to the incident in the house of a certain Gert Maasdorp although he could not remember exactly when.
He further denied that he broke the neck of the deceased or that he stuck a stick in her privates.
He further said that he did not know the deceased was a minor when he had intercourse with her as she appeared “grown-up” and also did not know it was a crime to have intercourse with a minor.
With regard to the charge that he raped another woman after he broke into her shack during the period 14 – 15 June 2013, he said that he went to the shack with the complainant’s boyfriend to get some cigarettes and when he later returned he found the door of the shack wide open.
According to De Klerk, he then undressed himself and asked the complainant who was totally naked for intercourse, but she refused, saying her boyfriend was in the vicinity. He further stated that the complainant then got extremely mad at him and he dressed and left, in the process leaving his underpants behind.
He denied having raped her, saying there is no evidence of penetration.
The state alleges that while he was on bail for this matter he happened upon Boois and not only brutally violated her, but ended her life by snapping her neck.
According to Judge Siboleka, the accused was seen by an eyewitness during the evening of 3 May 2014 when he was just about 16 paces away from the deceased and that DNA evidence also places him at the scene of crime.
The judge further said that a female witness who resided with the accused and was the friend of the deceased ruled out consensual sexual intercourse because, according to her, the two were not interacting or speaking with each other. When the deceased came to visit Gert Maasdorp’s house, she only came to her female friend and not to talk or to interact with the accused, Judge Siboleka recounted.
He went on to say the same witness at the accused’s residence further testified that the accused’s room did not have a door and children were running around, up and down, such that the presence of the deceased could very easily have been noticed.
“In view of the foregoing and given the fact that credibility does not play a role in such applications, I am of the view that the accused has answers that he should furnish if he so wishes related to the prima facie case that has been made out against him,” the judge concluded.
De Klerk is represented by Titus Mbaeva on instructions of legal aid and the state by Advocate Antonia Verhoef.