The High Court is yet to hear what transpired the day when a 27-year-old woman was kidnapped, raped, and strangled to death in 2020 in Gobabis.
During court proceedings last week, Abel Mokalabatho (27) was informed that the court will give the opportunity to his newly appointed lawyer Joseph Andreas to study the disclosure by the State, as well as for him to reply to the State’s pre-trial memorandum.
Thus, Deputy Judge President Hosea Angula postponed the case to 23 June, remanding Mokalabatho in police custody.
The prosecution is alleging that on 1 and 2 August 2020, Mokalabatho and the victim were drinking together at a shebeen at Drimiopsis in the Gobabis district.
It is alleged that when the victim left to go use the toilet, Mokalabatho followed her and raped her. He then forcefully took her to his house where he committed the second and third counts of rape. The state indicates that the victim was intoxicated, rendering her incapable of communicating her unwillingness.
On the count of murder, Mokalabatho stabbed the victim with a knife on her neck and strangled her to death with a piece of wire.
To cover up his alleged deed, he buried the victim in a manhole, cleaned his bedroom with a mop to remove the victim’s blood, and buried the knife underneath some plants. Furthermore, he informed the police that the victim left for the farm in the company of an unknown man after they had consensual sex in the toilet.
During his plea in Gobabis Magistrate’s Court, Mokalabatho told the court that the following day after he had forcefully taken the victim to his house and raped her, she had threatened to report him to her mother about the incident, and as a result, he stabbed her with a knife on the neck, then he strangled her to death with a wire. He then allegedly dumped the victim’s body in a manhole, a distance away from his bedroom.
For the alleged crimes, the prosecution is charging Mokalabatho with three counts of rape, kidnapping, murder, and obstructing the course of justice.
-mamakali@nepc.com.na