Man in court for kidnap and rape

PATRICIA MAGANU
Staff Writer | Thursday July 10, 2008 00:00

Detective Sergeant, Baleofi Disho, walked the court through a chilly account how Puisano Mojapodi and his friends allegedly dragged and threatened the woman and her boyfriend with a spear and axe before the rape.

Disho said that on the morning of 26 December last year, he received a report from the boyfriend who said that the suspects had come to his house and demanded to go with his girlfriend. 'He said he refused to open following but they forced open the door with a spear and demanded to go with the girlfriend,' Disho said. He added that the boyfriend then decided to walk his girlfriend to her house, but she was dragged away by the suspects.

'The boyfriend said he did not want a physical confrontation with the accused people so he came to the police,' he said. Disho added that he immediately went to the accused persons' house to find out where the complainant was.

'When we first went there, we were just following allegations that they had kidnapped the girl, but later investigations revealed that she had been raped,' he said. He said Mojapodi is the one who told him that the complainant had gone home.

'When I arrived at the complainant's house, she started crying as soon I got out of the car and she told me that Mojapodi and his friends had raped her the whole night while threatening her with an axe and spear,' he told the court. Disho said that he immediately went back to the accuseds' house where he demanded the axe and the spear. He said he found used condoms in the house hidden under the mattress.

During cross-examination, Mojapodi refuted the allegations saying that he did not drag the complainant and that she was not forced to have sex. 'If she was being forced, why did she not scream and not have any bruises,' he said. He added that the police assaulted them to try and get them to agree to the charges.

Disho charged back saying that the complainant could not scream because she was threatened and that she had no bruises because the incident took place in a house on a bed.

The hearing continues on 11 August. On a different matter, a 31-year-old man has been charged in court for raping his eight-year-old-niece last December in Dukwi.