By VUYO MKIZE

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Fifty-one. That is the number of charges Jazzman Rikhotso has been found guilty of by Johannesburg High Court Judge Colin Lamont.

Charged with 58 counts, Rikhotso, the man dubbed the “Avalon Cemetery Rapist” was found guilty on Tuesday on:

* 19 counts of rape;

* 11 counts of kidnapping;

* six counts of robbery;

* six counts of assault;

* two counts of assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm;

* four counts of sexual violation;

* two counts of the unlawful possession of a firearm; and

* one count of pointing a firearm.

For two years, Rikhotso preyed on helpless women and children either visiting graves of their loved ones or passing through the cemetery.

His youngest victim was 12 years old and the eldest is now aged 69.

All the victims share the same trauma of having been held against their will, throttled, robbed and raped by the man who stood before court and denied he ever knew or committed the crimes against them.

Unfortunately for Rikhotso, eight of his victims had positively identified him during an identity parade and his DNA matched the samples taken from his victims – his number was up.

The final nail on his coffin was when police traced a cellphone stolen from one of the victims to him.

“The accused is an extremely intelligent person. It was apparent to me that he sought to manipulate the evidence against him … He saw an opportunity to raise questions over the blood samples, that it was a different person’s blood, but subsequently, the blood proved to be his,” the judge said. “The State has proved beyond reasonable doubt that samples taken from the complainants matched the samples taken from the accused.

Rikhotso had told the court during his evidence how unhappy he had been about the way the identity parade had been conducted. He claimed the officer in charge of the parade kept leaving the room and insinuated that he could have been telling witnesses where he was positioned in the line-up.

He also claimed that during his arrest on October 7, 2010, the investigating officer in the case had taken copies of his ID, which led him to believe he had shown those pictures to the victims so they could point him out.

“The first difficulty with that is that there is no evidence the witnesses saw the photos, and the fact that there is a blanket denial from each of the witnesses that they saw the photos.

“Also, not all the witnesses pointed him out; if they had all seen the photos, one would expect he would have been pointed out by all the witnesses,” Judge Lamont said.

Rikhotso had said there had been an elaborate plot by the investigating officer to have him convicted of the charges because he wouldn’t pay him a R20 000 bribe. In terms of that complaint, the judge said: “In order to concoct such a plot, the police would have had to involve each complainant and the nurse.

“All evidence is that that (the plot) didn’t happen, and I accept that evidence.

“The complainants appeared to tell the truth in the best way they knew how and were traumatised by the incidents.”

The judge also withdrew his previous order for Rikhotso’s name to not be published saying: “There’s no reason why his name may not be published. It’s in the interest of society that people know the perpetrator of the crimes has been captured by the diligence of police and has now been convicted.”

Rikhotso is scheduled to be sentenced on Tuesday.

The Star Africa

Cape Town – A 16-year-old boy from Tygerberg, Cape Town, was raped on a school rugby tour, but authorities did nothing, Die Burgernewspaper reported on Thursday.

The attack, which took place on March 17 between pupils of a high school in the city, was filmed on cellphones and widely distributed. It appeared to be part of initiation proceedings. 

The victim’s mother told Die Burger that the Edgemead High Schools’ first team rugby had camped near Velddrift on the West Coast, and played a rugby match against a local school.

The boy was allegedly raped with a broom handle and a banana later that night.

‘Hysterical’

“On Friday night at around 11.30pm, my son sent me a ‘please call me’,” the mother said.

“He was hysterical and told me that the older boys wanted to shave his head… I insisted on speaking to them, but they told me I couldn’t tell them what to do, and ended the call.”

The boy then reportedly asked his rugby coach, Brandon Grant, for help, but he was told that he had to “stand up for yourself and be a man”.

The next night, after the victim had gone to sleep, he was allegedly attacked in his bed and raped. The attackers also shaved his eyebrows, squirted toothpaste up his nose and drew a phallic object on his forehead.

The victim’s parents removed their traumatised son from the school and laid a charge at the Bothasig police station on March 20.

Police told them on Wednesday that the perpetrators would not be prosecuted, as the boy had not been examined by a district surgeon at the time of the assault.

According to the boy’s mother, she was originally told by police that a medical examination was unnecessary, as the photographic evidence would be enough. The school’s headmaster told Die Burger the school had held an “internal disciplinary hearing”, and that several boys had been put on temporary suspension.

The Western Cape education department said it will investigate the incident.

By Genevieve Serra

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A convicted child rapist is on trial for a sexual attack on a young girl that has left her paralysed and barely able to speak.

Stephen “Foxy” Isaacs is accused of brutalising his young victim, beating and burning her after her torturous rape.

On Monday, a defiant Isaacs appeared in the dock of the Cape High Court where he insisted he is innocent.

The grim trial of one of the Cape’s most notorious rapists kicked off with chilling testimony from two boys how they found the tiny, broken, bleeding victim.

The boys have given a detailed account of how they helped rescue the little girl who had been left for dead.

The boys, aged 12 and 15 years old, were playing in bushes close to their home when they saw the girl crawling out from behind some trees.

They described how they ran over to her and carried her to the nearest street before running off to call her mom.

Isaacs pleaded not guilty to charges of kidnapping, rape, assault with the intent to cause grievous bodily harm and attempted murder.

Investigators claim Isaacs convinced the girl to go with him to an industrial area called Azla on Friday, October 22, 2010.

Along the way, he allegedly dragged her into an area known as Boombos in Darling.

Here he allegedly forced her to perform oral sex on him before raping her.

Police claim Isaacs hit the girl on the head and face when he was done raping her and then strangled her and burned her with cigarettes.

He allegedly dragged her into bushes along Evita Bezuidenhout Boulevard where he left her for dead.

The brave little girl, who was nine years old at the time of the horrific incident in October 2010, survived the traumatising ordeal.

She was blind for three months after her horrific ordeal due to a lack of oxygen to the brain.

And she was left paralysed in her right arm and both her legs.

On Monday, the 12-year-old boy told Judge Lee Bozalek that the girl’s face, chin, neck and arms were covered in cuts and scratches.

“She couldn’t stand and she couldn’t talk… we carried her to the shop and then we went to call her mother,” said the boy.

“We couldn’t carry her anymore because she was heavy.”

His friend told the court that the girl looked like someone who was drunk when they first saw her.

He added they only realised it was their schoolmate when she got closer to them.

“She was wearing her school pants and a pink top,” said the boy.

“She was carrying one school shoe in her hand and a packet of chips.

He told the court that she tried getting up several times but wasn’t able to.

Earlier on Monday morning a 17-year-old girl, who was with the child on the day of the violent attack, said Isaacs had spent the afternoon playing with them.

She told Bozalek that Isaacs was gesuip and afterwards went to sit against a wall and watched them play.

The teenager told the court the girl wanted to go look for her mother when it started to get dark.

“But we told her she can’t go because it was dark… then she said she was thirsty and was going to the shop,” she said.

The friend said she and the other kids went to look for the girl when she took long to return.

“She wasn’t at the shop when we got there and then we saw her walking through the bush towards Azla,” said the girl.

“[Isaacs] was walking behind her in the same direction.”

She said she didn’t see her friend again until the next afternoon.

The trial continues on Tuesday.

*This article was published in the Daily Voice

An Eastern Cape man is due to appear in a Mthatha court on Tuesday after allegedly raping a nine-year-old girl over the weekend.

Butterworth police said the suspect, who is a friend of the victim’s brother, came to visit him but found the girl alone in her home in Centane.

The police’s Jackson Manatha said the incident took place Saturday evening at about 10pm.