Horror testimony in serial rape case
One of 53-year-old convicted serial rapist Jan Rooinasie's victim's laid under him in broad daylight, “under a cloudless Windhoek sky”, believing she was going to die.
She noticed a tattoo on his left shoulder, 'Verlore Seun (Lost Boy) and realised that should she survive, she would have to remember not only that, but also his lack of upper teeth, to identify him.
The victim, as with two of his other three victims, was strangled so intensely by Rooinasie that she was left unconscious. When she woke, Rooinasie was raping her.
She, along with two others, were lured by him with the story that his highly pregnant wife was due to give birth and he needed help.
Judge Alfred Siboleka, in his judgement in the Windhoek High Court yesterday, described the pregnant woman as a ghost, created by Rooinasie to lure the women away with him.
Shortly after 09:00 yesterday morning, Rooinasie was found guilty of four counts of attempted murder, eight of rape, two of indecent assault and two of crimen injuria.
Gender activists, including gender minister Doreen Sioka, yesterday demanded a long sentence for Rooinasie
According to Sioka, “even the Bible is against rape”.
She said she cannot understand why men do not marry women instead of going out and raping them.
However, she said, she is also aware that husbands do rape their wives, adding she knew of two such individual cases.
Immaculate Mogotsi, a gender activist, said yesterday patriarchy and the concept that women are subservient to men, are central to the violence women in the country are suffering.
Rooinasie, known to one victim as Uncle Jan, a once-lover of her mother, sat emotionless yesterday, listening to Siboleka's judgement.
The victim, the only one to have known Rooinasie personally, was a mere 13 years old when he raped her.
He had asked her to walk with him as he was dropping off a loaf of bread at his house.
She testified she waited for him at the gate to his house. He invited her in and then put a knife to her throat, instructing her to undress. She said she complied and laid naked on the bed, crying.
The details of the rape are gruesome. Siboleka, in his judgement yesterday, said testimony indicated that after Rooinasie had put on a condom and penetrated the girl, he had to later apply Vaseline over the condom to continue the rape.
He was in a relationship with the victim's mother, who ended it after the rape allegations came to light.
Yesterday Rooinasie told Namibian Sun he is “ready for anything” because he became a born-again Christian a year ago, adding God takes good care of him.
At the start of the trial, he pleaded not guilty to all the charges.
Karin Esterhuizen prosecuted and Mbanga Siyomunji appeared for Rooinasie.
Rooinasie will be sentenced on 19 April.
Denver Kisting
She noticed a tattoo on his left shoulder, 'Verlore Seun (Lost Boy) and realised that should she survive, she would have to remember not only that, but also his lack of upper teeth, to identify him.
The victim, as with two of his other three victims, was strangled so intensely by Rooinasie that she was left unconscious. When she woke, Rooinasie was raping her.
She, along with two others, were lured by him with the story that his highly pregnant wife was due to give birth and he needed help.
Judge Alfred Siboleka, in his judgement in the Windhoek High Court yesterday, described the pregnant woman as a ghost, created by Rooinasie to lure the women away with him.
Shortly after 09:00 yesterday morning, Rooinasie was found guilty of four counts of attempted murder, eight of rape, two of indecent assault and two of crimen injuria.
Gender activists, including gender minister Doreen Sioka, yesterday demanded a long sentence for Rooinasie
According to Sioka, “even the Bible is against rape”.
She said she cannot understand why men do not marry women instead of going out and raping them.
However, she said, she is also aware that husbands do rape their wives, adding she knew of two such individual cases.
Immaculate Mogotsi, a gender activist, said yesterday patriarchy and the concept that women are subservient to men, are central to the violence women in the country are suffering.
Rooinasie, known to one victim as Uncle Jan, a once-lover of her mother, sat emotionless yesterday, listening to Siboleka's judgement.
The victim, the only one to have known Rooinasie personally, was a mere 13 years old when he raped her.
He had asked her to walk with him as he was dropping off a loaf of bread at his house.
She testified she waited for him at the gate to his house. He invited her in and then put a knife to her throat, instructing her to undress. She said she complied and laid naked on the bed, crying.
The details of the rape are gruesome. Siboleka, in his judgement yesterday, said testimony indicated that after Rooinasie had put on a condom and penetrated the girl, he had to later apply Vaseline over the condom to continue the rape.
He was in a relationship with the victim's mother, who ended it after the rape allegations came to light.
Yesterday Rooinasie told Namibian Sun he is “ready for anything” because he became a born-again Christian a year ago, adding God takes good care of him.
At the start of the trial, he pleaded not guilty to all the charges.
Karin Esterhuizen prosecuted and Mbanga Siyomunji appeared for Rooinasie.
Rooinasie will be sentenced on 19 April.
Denver Kisting
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