‘Extra’ stab wounds inflicted by medical team, Afrikaner claims

A man who stands accused of stabbing his girlfriend to death with a pair of scissors has cast doubt on a postmortem report that claims she was stabbed six times.Appearing before High Court judge Claudia Claasen on Monday, Rodney Afrikaner told the court that he did not trust the expert witness who reported that there were six stab wounds on Petricia Hochobes’ body.The stabbing took place in Hakahana in Windhoek in 2019. Afrikaner claimed that when he was arrested, paramedics informed him that there were three wounds to Hochobes’ right leg.During cross-examination, he challenged the admissibility of the report presented in court. "As far as I’m concerned, I’m accused of inflicting only three stab wounds. Where did the other three come from?" he questioned expert witness Dr Simasiku Kabanje. Afrikaner further accused Kabanje and his medical team, who drafted the postmortem report, of inflicting the additional three stab wounds. Not possibleKabanje explained that the medical tools used to assess the depth and extent of the wounds are not sharp. "We use tools like forceps, which are blunt, so this accusation is not possible.”According to him, the autopsy revealed that the fatal wound was six centimetres deep and pierced the thigh muscles. Hochobes weighed 54 kilograms at the time of her death. "Her internal organs were pale, which indicates she lost a significant amount of blood and ultimately bled to death," he explained. A state witness recounted the events of that fateful night, stating that Afrikaner and Hochobes were embroiled in a heated argument. The witness further told the court that Afrikaner slapped Hochobes before retrieving a pair of scissors from a bedroom. Hochobes was breastfeeding their seven-month-old baby when Afrikaner stabbed her in the thigh with the pair of scissors.

‘Extra’ stab wounds inflicted by medical team, Afrikaner claims

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Namibian Sun 2025-05-12

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‘Extra’ stab wounds inflicted by medical team, Afrikaner claims

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Namibian Sun 2025-05-12

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