Roland Routh
Windhoek-A man accused of luring young women into a bushy area near the Katutura hospital under the pretext he needed help with his and his heavily pregnant girlfriend’s luggage, and then raping them at knifepoint, yesterday and Tuesday made blanket denials that he was the one responsible during his testimony in chief.
Jan Rooinasie, 52, testified he was in Swakopmund at the time the offences were committed.
Testifying in his own defence, Rooinasie told Judge Alfred Siboleka he was staying in Swakopmund’s DRC location when the offences were committed.
He even had names of the people he apparently stayed with, but said he could not trace them as the location had greatly expanded since his last stay there.
After the State closed its case last year, Judge Siboleka granted Rooinasie leave to go to the location in the company of police officers to look for the witnesses he said could verify his claim that he was in fact in Swakopmund when the offences were committed.
But he said he could not find the witnesses he named as Maria Gaweses, Johannes Gaweses and Michael Rooi as they probably had moved away from where they were staying. He further said he was hampered in his search by the presence of the police as the people were not as forthcoming with information as they would have been if he were on his own.
With regard to the charge he abducted a 13-year-old girl and raped her, he told the court he knew the girl as he and the girl’s mother were involved in a romantic relationship.
He however denied that he either abducted or raped the girl as he was “enjoying with friends in Owanbo location that evening”.
The girl testified that Rooinasie came to her home on May 25, 2007 and asked her to accompany him to his house to drop off bread, but when they arrived there he invited her inside, pulled out a knife, ordered her to undress and then raped her.
However, Rooinasie denied it, saying he would never have touched the girl as she was “a child before me”.
He further denied the other allegations levelled against him.
According to Rooinasie he only returned to Windhoek on March 27 or 28, after he had stayed in Swakopmund since the beginning of March 2010, making it impossible for him to have committed the acts he is accused of.
He faces seven counts of rape, one count of abduction or alternatively kidnapping, one count of attempting to commit an immoral act with a child below the age of 16 years, three counts of crimen injuria, two counts of attempted murder and one count of indecent assault.
According to the State he raped a woman on March 2, another one on March 6 and yet another one on March 10 of 2010.
His modus operandi was to threaten the women with a sharp object, strangle them unconscious and then violate them, the State charges.
Yesterday Judge Siboleka granted Rooinasie another chance to find his alibi witnesses and postponed the matter to October 10 this year.
The witnesses, Maria Gaweses, Johannes Gaweses and Michael Rooi, or anyone knowing their whereabouts, are requested to contact Siyomunji Law Chambers at 061-255797 or 081-1228104.
Rooinasie is represented by Mbanga Siyomunji on instructions of legal aid and Deputy Prosecutor General Karin Esterhuizen appears for the State.