WATERVAL – Regional Magistrate Willie Fourie last week launched a scathing attack on a local private investigator whose actions nearly caused two rapists to walk free.

On Friday, November 19, Fourie handed down judgement on the two men who were accused of raping two 14-year-old girls along Industria Street on July 18 last year. Both were found guilty of rape in the sexual crimes court in Waterval. They will be sentenced in the High Court in due course.

Regional Magistrate Willie Fourie said that the forensic evidence and the DNA tests had proven beyond doubt that Tshifhiwa Mudau (27) and the other accused, a 17-year-old youth, had been at the scene of the incident and had raped the two 14-year-old girls. Both pleaded not guilty to the crimes.

In his judgement, Magistrate Fourie issued strongly worded criticism about irregularities caused by a private investigator in respect of an identity parade in which the two victims identified the wrong person as the rapist. He said that one of the complainants had testified that they were “prepared” for the identity parade by the investigator, Mr Fanie Geyer, to identify a specific person during the identity parade. Geyer, a former policeman, presently operates his own security business.

Magistrate Fourie added that it is easy for a confused 14-year-old to make a misidentification shortly after a brutal rape. He condemned the way in which the identity parade was performed, however.

He said that Geyer had taken video footage of a certain Emmanuel, who had been arrested for house-breaking. He then took the video to the complainants, showed it to them and told them: “There is your rapist.” He subsequently arranged the identity parade in which Emmanuel was wrongly identified as a rapist.

“It is totally irregular. The state must take the matter up with the prosecutor. We cannot allow people to act in this matter,” Mr Fourie added. He said that if no DNA evidence had been available, he would have had no choice but to find the accused not guilty. He added that forensic evidence proved that Emmanuel had not been at the scene of the rapes. The case was withdrawn and he never figured in the case again.

The first accused, Mudau, acknowledged several previous convictions, including rape, dealing in dagga, assault, housebreaking and possession of stolen goods. The second accused, however, is a first offender.

The mother of one of the two girls this week stated that she would like to see that both men receive life sentences.