By Shellee Geduld

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The evil smirk has been wiped off Stephen “Foxy” Isaacs’ face after he was found guilty of the brutal rape of a young girl.

Western Cape High Court Judge Lee Bozalek made it clear to Isaacs that he was convicted by the testimonies of two children – a teen witness and the victim.

Bozalek praised the testimony of a 17-year-old girl who told the court that Isaacs had played with her and some other children in the road outside her home hours before the vicious attack.

“What was particularly important was the evidence of (the 17-year-old) who innocently said that perhaps he couldn’t remember the events of the Friday because he was drunk,” said Bozalek.

“She gave evidence of his entirely inappropriate behaviour of engaging with children and she placed him in (the child’s) immediate vicinity.”

The judge said that he approached the child’s evidence with extreme caution but he found that there was absolutely no reason for her to lie.

“What is crucial is the evidence of the only witness and this was approached with extreme caution,” said Bozalek.

As for the young victim, he stated: “She was a nine-year-old girl who suffered trauma and was the victim of an assault that left her with brain injuries.

“She retained her memory and could distinguish between the truth and falsehood.

“It was a painful experience to hear and watch her give evidence.

But Bozalek added that the “ironic effect” of this was that the child convinced him that Isaacs was guilty of attacking him.

He said that Isaacs claimed the girl was mistaken when she identified him as her attacker but there was nothing to substantiate this claim.

“He said she may have been confused or even put up to it but there was no evidence that she was confused or manipulated,” Bozalek told the court.

“Her evidence was clear and tied in with (the testimony of) her mom, the 17-year-old girl and the two boys who found her.

“She knows the accused well and identified him as her attacker… the only question was if she falsely or mistakenly identified the accused.

“What is of significance is the way she identified the man accused of her attack… she said he was the same colour as she was and gave a description of what he was wearing.

“This information had to be coaxed out of her by her mom after clearly admitting she had lied [about being knocked over by a car].

“This strengthens her version, she said there were too many strangers around her and this is a completely natural reaction by a child.

“These telling moments powerfully underscored her evidence and she had no reason to falsely accuse him.

“I have no hesitation in accepting her evidence.”

Bozalek was brutal in his honesty when he described Isaacs as a cold-hearted liar.

Of Isaacs’ evidence, he said: “He chose his words with care.

“He was quick-witted and was seldom at a loss for an answer.

“It was clear that he had studied the docket.

“However, his evidence as a whole was filled with improbabilities.

“He admitted that he lied [to the family] when he said he would return to the house.

“He lied when he said that he was still in the Darling area.

“He lied to police when he promised to present himself to the Darling Police Station.

“He fled Darling and made his way to Strand where he worked for two weeks until his arrest.

“It is clear he decided to evade the authorities.

“In my view, [Isaacs’] evidence must be rejected as false.

“I find he did indeed kidnap, rape and attempt to murder [the child].

“He must’ve panicked when she emerged from the bush and identified him.”

Charges

Convicted child rapist Stephen “Foxy” Isaacs was yesterday found guilty of three of the four charges he faced in the Western Cape High Court.

*Count one: Kidnapping – Guilty.

The State said Isaacs unlawfully deprived the then nine-year-old girl of her freedom when he lied to her about going to the shop to buy sweets and instead dragged her into thick bushes.

On Tuesday trial Judge Lee Bozalek said: “She testified that she was dragged face down into an unknown place. I am satisfied that the State has proven he’s guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.”

* Count two: Rape – Guilty.

During the trial, the child told the court Isaacs had wanted her to perform oral sex on him and when she refused, he hit her and burnt her with cigarettes.

When she fought him off, he pushed her to the ground and proceeded to rape her. Medical evidence presented to the court backed up her claims and Isaacs was found guilty of rape.

* Count three: Assault with the intention to cause grievous bodily harm – Not guilty.

Isaacs was acquitted of this charge after Bozalek found that the assault was a continuation of the rape.

He said that when the child had refused to perform oral sex on Isaacs, he had tried to force her to do so by beating her and burning her.

* Count four: Attempted murder – Guilty.

The victim described to the court how Isaacs had choked her.

Using her left hand, she demonstrated how he had placed his hand around her throat and strangled her.

On Tuesday Bozalek said: “He intended to kill her and eliminate the only witness to his crime.”

*This article was published in the Daily Voice

KHUMA: A 68-year-old man is expected to appear soon before the Stilfontein Magistrates’ Court for allegedly raping her 14-year-old granddaughter for some time. 

The last incident happened during the night of Monday, 14 May 2012. 

“It is alleged that The victim cried hysterically when asked to do the oral reading work by standing in front of the whole class at one of the high schools in the area and read out loud.  The teacher investigated what the matter was and it was then that the rape ordeal came to light” North West SAPS Sopkesperson warrant officer Sam Tselanyane said.

The victim’s aunt was called to the school and was informed about the incident. She denied the accusation against her father. 

Allegedly the matter was reported previously to the family but it was kept as a family secret. 

It is also said the family dismissed the allegations and said they were caused by witchcraft and the devil.  Police were informed and the suspect was arrested on Sunday, 20 May 2012.

BY Obakeng Maje

Police are seriously concerned about the number of rape and sexual offence cases that are reported daily in the Province.  Since Friday, 18 May 2012, a number of rape and sexual offence cases were reported.

ITSOSENG: A 28-year-old Bangladesh National is expected to appear before the Itsoseng Magistrates, Court on Monday, 21 May 2012 on a charge of soliciting or enticing the commission of an indecent act. 

The incident happened at Shaleng Village in Bodibe.  It is alleged that on Friday, 18 May 2012 at about 11:30, a 16-year-old mentally ill victim was send to the shop to buy spice and matches when the suspect called her behind the counter.

“The suspect allegedly tried to bribe the victim with 4 sweets and ordered the victim to kiss him and she refused. The suspect removed the victim’s t-shirt and started to kiss her breasts. He then ordered the victim to kiss his private parts and she did” Warrant officer Sam Tselanyane said.

  He then let her go, but the victim reported the incident and the suspect was later arrested. 

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Convicted rapist Stephen “Foxy” Isaacs has no witnesses to back his claims he did not rape a nine-year-old girl before leaving her for dead, prosecutors argued on Wednesday.

The State also slammed the accused’s complete denial of the savage assault as the rape trial entered its final stages.

But Isaacs’ lawyers hit back saying there is no “proof” he is responsible for the vicious attack that forever changed an innocent young girl’s life.

The showdown played out in the Western Cape High Court on Wednesday as closing arguments in the trial got underway.

Prosecutor Jacomina Swart told the court that the child had proved to be a reliable witness who was able to identify the man who attacked her and left her for dead.

Swart told trial Judge Lee Bozalek that, despite the physical disability the girl was left with as a result of the attack, the child was able to give the court an accurate account of her ordeal.

“From the beginning, the child identified (Isaacs) as the man who attacked her,” she said.

“She knew the accused (Isaacs) well and she gave an accurate description of him when she testified.

“She was known to (Isaacs) and on his own admission, she saw him as a friend and someone she could trust.

“The description she gave of the clothes he was wearing on the night (she was attacked) matched the description given to the court by State Witness Gert Carstens.”

Swart told the court that the doctor’s report of the injuries the little girl suffered painted a horrific picture of an extremely violent assault.

The girl’s face was covered with scratches and bruises.

She was strangled with such force that she passed out and her brain was starved of oxygen for a prolonged period of time.

“She (the child) said she was burnt on her arm but if you look at the pictures of her injuries, it is clear that there are also cigarette burn wounds on her thigh,” Swart told the court.

She said this was done to make sure the child was dead.

“He knew that she would be able to identify him because she knew him,” said Swart.

“The reason he burnt her with the cigarette after he strangled her was to see if she was dead.”

Swart told Bozalek the fact that the accused went on the run the moment he heard that he had been implicated in the attack on the child, even though he was on parole, was proof of his guilt.

But Isaacs’ lawyer Paul Barnard has urged the court to dismiss this evidence, saying it amounted to nothing but a witchhunt.

He told Bozalek the State’s witnesses had not added any strength to the case against his client and did not prove that Isaacs was the man who attacked the child.

“The evidence of the 17-year-old and Carstens does not implicate him in these charges,” said Barnard.

But Bozalek dismissed this argument and told Barnard: “It doesn’t matter, it places him in the same place as the child on the day of the incident.”

Bozalek was also critical of Isaacs’ alibi that he had been drinking beers with people from the area on the day the young girl was attacked.

The judge slammed Isaacs’ description of his physical state on the October 2010 night as “pleasantly drunk”.

“He says he drank six cans of beers and then at least seven quarts of beers, then at least another three more beers and he called himself pleasantly drunk,” the judge said.

“Pleasantly intoxicated is two or three glasses of wine with lunch. It doesn’t matter over how long you have been drinking.”

These are the main points made by the State pointing to Isaacs’ guilt:

*He was seen with the girl on the day she was attacked;

* He was the only person the girl named as her rapist;

* Although he claimed to have an alibi, he did not call anyone to testify for him;

* He went on the run immediately after he found out she survived;

* He admitted lying to the police, the child’s family and his sister.

His lawyer argues the following:

* No DNA evidence to link him to the rape;

* He denies that he was with the child on the day of the attack;

* He claims the child is confused about who attacked her;

* He was framed because he has was on parole for a sex crime;

* He was out drinking on the day of the attack.

victim: The 10-year-old girl

*This article was published in the Daily Voice

A 13-year-old Pretoria teenager was raped, allegedly by a 45-year-old man she met on social networking site Twitter, according to a report on Thursday.

Police spokeswoman Captain Marissa van der Merwe said the girl had played truant from school on March 13 to allow a man to meet her at her parents’ luxury home at the exclusive Silver Lakes golf estate in Pretoria east, Beeld reported.

“When the girl opened the door, she realised that the man was a lot older than he had pretended to be online,” Van der Merwe told the newspaper.

The girl tried to close the door, but he forced it open.

“She tried to get away from him, but was unable to, and he raped her.”

The alleged rapist was arrested shortly afterwards, and he appeared in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court for the second time on Wednesday.

He may not yet be named, as no charge had formally been put to him.

According to Van der Merwe, the victim had been speaking to the alleged predator online for some time, but he had not posted a picture of himself on his profile.

She urged people, especially children, to be wary on social networks.

“Don’t just invite strangers to your home. It’s dangerous.” – Sapa

By POLOKO TAU

The Department of Women, Children and People with Disabilities has acknowledged a “horrific spate” of persistent sexual abuse of children with intellectual disabilities.

Although they could not quantify the incidents, the department said the abuse often went un-reported, adding that even when victims spoke out they were unlikely to be taken seriously.

Department spokesman Tanana Monama said: “We’ve heard from many women with disabilities and parents of children with disabilities that often when they relate personal experiences or report violence or abuse, they are often not believed or even turned away because of the difficulty in communications.”

“We believe that our criminal justice needs to be capacitated to ensure that it is able to handle cases of people with disabilities more effectively.”

Two recent incidents, involving two mentally disabled children who were sexually abused in Soweto, brought the plight of disabled children to the forefront.

Recently, a teenage girl from Bramfischerville, Soweto, was gang-raped and the incident captured on video.

Days later a woman and a girl were arrested for the rape of a 17-year-old mentally challenged boy.

Among those who called for harsher sentences for such abusers was the chairman of the portfolio committee on social development, Yolanda Botha.

She welcomed life imprisonment for a man who sodomised his mentally disabled friend in Limpopo.

“Handing down harsher sentences for these crimes will certainly warn others out there who might have the same intentions of taking advantage of the disabled.

“They would see that the law doesn’t play; it takes these crimes seriously and deals with them decisively,” Botha said.

Tshwaraganang Legal Advocacy Centre executive director Lisa Vetten said intellectually disabled children are being targeted by rapists because they may not be believed or are seen to be weak witnesses in court.

“Intellectually disabled rape victims should be prepared for court so that they can also see justice,” Vetten said.

She said their mental functioning would need to be assessed so it could be determined how much help they’d need in court.

“Cape Mental Health is so far the only organisation with programmes that helps intellectually disabled victims in preparing them for court.”

Vetten said she was baffled by a North West court decision in which an alleged rapist was freed on bail for allegedly sexually abusing a 10-year-old epileptic girl, who is also his neighbour.

The girl’s family claimed the suspect has previous convictions for murder and rape.

Vetten said: “Prosecutors need to explain why he was granted bail – lessons should be taken from the case of Mamokgethi Malebane.”

Seven-year-old Mamokgethi from Katlehong in the East Rand was throttled to death and buried in a shallow grave by her neighbour, Daniel Mabote, 31, in 1997. When he committed the murder Mabote had been on bail on a charge of raping Mamokgethi.

“Unfortunately, the police and courts are not learning from such incidents where a suspect was released on bail without considering others’ safety.

“In cases where such people commit other offences while out on bail, then the state would have failed to protect,” Vetten said.

A legal expert at the Commission for Gender Equality, Victor Mavhidula, said there were a number of possibilities that often led to bail being granted to suspects in rape cases of disabled children.

“It depends on whether the prosecutor and police opposed bail and on what grounds.

“If the suspect has previous convictions of rape I don’t know how he could have been granted bail, when this carries so much weight in opposing bail, unless police did not bring this information to the court’s attention.

“The public’s interest, including how the community and the family feels about the suspect being freed on bail, should also be considered.

“If the suspect lives in the same neighbourhood as the victim then it goes without saying that his release won’t be good for the victim, who may even be afraid to go to court at a later stage.”

Mavhidula said another possibility may have been there was not enough evidence against the suspect, but said it was “wrong he was granted bail and no one bothered to inform the family”.

Lizel van Eeden, from Maatla a Bana, an anti-child abuse organisation, said investigating sexual crime cases needed the police and courts to rely on other evidence.

“These child victims may often not be excellent witnesses but medical evidence is very important.

“A professional witness can also be brought in to testify on the child’s behalf, particularly on the health or psychological impact the incident has had on the victim,” Van Eeden said.

“Police are also expected to oppose bail citing tangible evidence against the suspect.

“These are specialised cases that need specialists’ involvement in working towards a conviction and investigating officers also need to go the extra mile to ensure this,” Van Eeden said.

The Star Africa

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.