A Gobabis resident, convicted of a series of rapes and robberies, has completed his court-ordered mental assessment to determine whether he is able to appreciate the wrongfulness of his actions.

Richard Kennedy Haoseb from Kanaan location was earlier this year ordered by Windhoek High Court Judge Dinnah Usiku to be assessed by a State-employed psychiatrist.

A report will be submitted within 30 days.

Haoseb was convicted on five counts of rape, two counts of housebreaking with intent to rob and robbery, four counts of robbery with aggravating circumstances and one count of kidnapping.

He had denied guilt at the start of his trial.

In June, he briefly escaped from the mental health facility, where he was being held, but was rearrested a few days later.

Prosecutor Palmer Khumalo yesterday informed the court that the psychiatrist’s report has been finalised.

However, the findings cannot yet be made public, as they have not been disclosed in open court.

Judge Usiku postponed the matter to 22 October, when the report will either be admitted into evidence or disputed, depending on its contents.

The request for mental observation followed submissions by Haoseb’s legal aid lawyer Eliaser Shikwa, who joined the matter only after his conviction.

He told the court that Haoseb had long displayed signs of mental illness, having reported hearing voices and seeing armed people since the age of seven.

He was never examined as a child and only underwent a psychiatric evaluation after his arrest in September 2024.

Shikwa said he became aware of Haoseb’s condition during mitigation consultations when he came across his client’s medical passport, which detailed his mental disorder.

The State said Haoseb’s crime spree began in December 2015 when he broke into the shack of two women while they were asleep.

At knifepoint, he robbed them of cash and mobile phones before raping them.

A third woman in the shack escaped rape due to her advanced pregnancy, although she was robbed.

The indictment further states that in December 2017, Haoseb targeted two more women in Gobabis’s Herero Block, threatening them with a knife and demanding valuables before raping them.

Afterward, he allegedly abducted a young girl at knifepoint, took her to another shack against her will, raped her and kept her captive, depriving her of her liberty.

Despite pleading not guilty, Haoseb was convicted on all charges on 28 March this year.

He remains in custody pending finalisation of the mental assessment proceedings.

– rrouth@nepc.com.na