Defence to make application for discharge

The 29-year-old Pieters is charged in the Windhoek High Court with four counts of rape with two alternative counts of committing a sexual act with a child under the age of 16 as well as one attempted rape, theft and assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm.

Two of the alleged rape incidents took place on the same day. The accused denies guilt on the charges.

Meanwhile, the accused’s attorney, Titus Ipumbu, at the conclusion of the evidence by Dr Maxim Verkusa said he intends bringing application for the discharge of his client.
Pieters allegedly raped an 11 year old girl on 20 August 2004 in Tseiblaagte suburb in Keetmanshoop.

Verkusa who worked since 1998 at the Keetmanshoop State Hospital as a general practitioner, medical officer and anesthetist conducted the medical examination on the victim.

There was allegedly a tear in the victim’s vagina, but it was in an advanced process of healing. The incident took place on October 27, 2007 and the examination was conducted on October 29, 2007.

Pieters is further charged with another rape that the accused allegedly committed on June 21 2005, on a young woman in a riverbed who was walking home from work in Keetmanshoop.

In a further alleged rape incident it is said that on October 27, 2007, near the railway line in Keetmanshoop the complainant was sent to buy an electricity card at the Desert Butchery in Keetmanshoop. But after she crossed the railway line, the accused grabbed her, dragged her to the field where he undressed her and then started to have sex with her.

The accused is further charged with the rape of a 10-year-old boy. He grabbed the complainant from behind on October 27, 2007, when he was walking from his uncle’s to his mother’s house. He dragged him to a place behind the soccer field in Tseiblaagte where he allegedly raped the boy.

The State Prosecution represented by Karin Esterhuizen closed the State’s case.

Judge Naomi Shivute postponed the case till December 5 for submission.