Online anonymity couldn’t hide Facebook rapist – here’s how he was caught

The idea that one can hide behind anonymity to commit a crime on Facebook is just an illusion, as tracing IP addresses, cellphone numbers, and good old detective work can still be the end of criminals lurking in cyber space. And these were the tools used to ensure Thokozane Jiyani, the Boksburg man dubbed the Facebook Rapist, was caught.

His six months reign of terror

Between October 2019 and March 2020, the 23-year-old used social media to masquerade as a well-known local celebrity, offering jobs in the filming industry to unemployed female fans.

According to the court papers of his trial, Jiyane also offered work in the hospitality industry. Gauteng police also said the rapist promised work in promoting the celebrity’ clothing label.

Those who grabbed the opportunity were sent messages on Facebook and after exchanging contact details, the conversations would then move to WhatsApp, with his victims believing they were chatting to the celebrity, whose name is being withheld for privacy reasons.

Jiyane would request the job-hopefuls to send their pictures and would sometimes propose a romantic relationship with them. With the firm belief they were chatting to their TV crush, the women would agree to meet Jiyane at a place of his choice.

Jiyane’s ten victims came from as far as Middelburg and KwaMhlanga in Mpumalanga, Hammanskraal, Soweto, Westonaria and Vosloorus, and he would convince the women to catch a taxi to Angelo informal settlement in Boksburg.

ALSO READ: Mamelodi ‘Facebook Rapist’ must get three life terms – State

Kidnap, rape, and robbery

Upon reaching their destination, each woman would contact Jiyane to let him know of their arrival. The serial rapist would then tell them he was sending a friend to accompany her to his whereabouts.

That is when Jiyani himself would arrive. Later on in his criminal spree, he would instead direct his victims over the phone to where they should meet him, which always turned out to be a deserted area.

Once he was sure they were isolated in the deserted areas, Jiyani would hit his victims in the face, choke them while threatening grievous bodily harm. In some instances, he would yield a knife before robbing them of cash, cellphones, bank cards. He even stole make-up from one of his victims.

Jiyane would proceed to rape his victims, with some being raped several times during the kidnapping and forced to perform oral sex on him.

Jiyani would then use the stolen bank cards to withdraw cash and buy airtime.

First arrest didn’t end his reign of terror

The young man was first arrested in October 2019 in Delmas, but he was released due to an inability to clearly link him to the crimes.

He escaped to Boksburg and simply continued his reign of terror, said police spokesperson Colonel Noxolo Kweza.

He was eventually arrested again in March 2020, by Captain SM Manaka of the FCS [family violence, child protection and sexual offence] unit, at the Angelo squatter camp in Boksburg.

The investigating officer relied mostly on the cyber unit to retrieve information about Jiyane from his Facebook posts between him and his victims, Kweza said.

Criminals can’t hide behind Facebook

Anonymity on social media is an illusion as it is quite easy to catch a criminal on social media once the approach to his victims is established, said open-source intelligence and digital forensics investigator Craig Pedersen.

And while platforms such as Facebook were pretty secure, there are methods to track and monitor particular profiles. This would be done with the cooperation of Facebook upon a subpoena, he said.

“You take all the profiles he has used to communicate with these women, go to Facebook and ask them to show you which cellphone numbers were used to register these user accounts and when these IP addresses were last used.”

“In a case like this, you are talking about a predator who put a lot of time and preparation into their craft. You would assume that person has multiple cellphones – one to register a profile and another to communicate from. At the end of the day, you still have an IP address that they attach to every time they connect to Facebook.”

The IP addresses are sent to the relevant network service provider which would lead to the actual device used by the perpetrator.

“You could be able to go further, even if the criminal was using a cellphone that was not registered with Rica, to acquire the positional data of the device from the network provider to understand the perpetrators movement. That is the path you would follow to track them down. Beyond that, you get down to old-school detective work and find out how does he get from wherever he is to where the victim is.”

223 years behind bars on multiple charges of rape, robbery and kidnapping

Jiyane was sentenced to 223 years imprisonment by the Johannesburg High Court on 6 August, after he was found guilty on 17 counts of rape, ten counts of robberies with aggravating circumstances, two counts of kidnapping and assault GBH and three counts of fraud.

“The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) welcomes the sentence as it will serve as a deterrent to like-minded individuals,” said NPA spokesperson Phindi Mjonondwane.

rorisangk@citizen.co.za