VIDEO: Court dismisses psychiatric observation of Bronkhorstspruit ‘rapist’
Magistrate Frans Tsatsi said the man was mentally fit to stand trail.
The Bronkhorstspruit magistrate court on Thursday dismissed a man’s application to have his mental fitness to stand trial evaluated.
The man is accused of raping his domestic worker and then forcing her to perform sexual acts with a dog.
Magistrate Frans Tsatsi said the defence provided little evidence as to why the accused needed to be sent to Weskoppies Psychiatric hospital for observation.
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“We cannot send every accused person for psychiatric observation, as it costs a lot of money. There has to be basis for this,” he said.
A preliminary assessment that was done last year cited that the accused showed no signs of mental illness.
Testifying in court, psychiatrist Dr Masase Beke said she assessed the accused in December and found that he only suffered from mild intellectual disability.
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According to Beke, this meant that he was not able to learn as fast as others could, but was able to differentiate between right and wrong.
“Mental illness means a person hallucinates, has delusions, behaves inappropriately and sometimes has incoherent speech,” she said.
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Beke said when she assessed the accused he could communicate well and could give an explanation of what transpired on the day in question.
The 45-year-old allegedly raped the woman several times and forced her to perform sexual acts with a dog.
He faces 10 counts including rape, sexual assault and kidnapping.
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“He told me he had sex with the woman as they normally would, but does not know what happened the rest of the day. He did say that the dog also slept with her,” said Beke.
When asked how the dog was able to sleep with a human being, the accused had replied: “The dog knows.”
Prosecutor Solly Leballo, who opposed the application, said granting mental observation would be a waste of state resources and would give people the impression that they could fake mental illness to avoid trial.
“The accused is trying to avoid trial by taking this route,” he said.
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Hleketani Maluleke for the defence argued that it was possible that the accused suffered from “lucid intervals”, which would explain why he was able to communicate with the police and psychiatrist like a sane person would.
Maluleke explained that a “lucid intervals” was a brief period during which an insane person regained sanity and for that reason the court needed to send the accused for observation.
However, Tsatsi dismissed this, saying that the accused recited too well his version of events to various witnesses, which would have been impossible for a person with “lucid intervals”.
“It would be impossible for him to remember so vehemently something he did when he was in an abnormal state,” he said.
Scores of EFF supporters marched outside the court, calling for an end to woman abuse.
The criminal case will resume on 13 March.
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