‘My escape from paedophile Gert van Rooyen’

A SOUTH Coast woman has decided to share  how she narrowly escaped the clutches of  notorious paedophile Gert van Rooyen.

Van Rooyen and his partner, Joey Haarhoff, widely believed to have abducted and murdered at least six girls in 1988 and 1989, were never brought to book for the crimes – they committed suicide before police could arrest them.

Today, the Port Shepstone woman (52), who asked not to be named, still can’t figure out if it was a guardian angel or her instincts that saved her from possibly becoming one of Van Rooyen’s victims.

The woman said she had decided to speak out because even all these years later, Van Rooyen’s  name still crops up in conversation.  She has often wondered why she was spared.

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What unfolded on a cold winter’s morning in Witpoortjie, near Krugersdorp on the West Rand in 1976 is still vivid in her mind.

She speaks of her escape as though it happened yesterday…

It was a few days before her 14th birthday. Her mother had been sick with ‘flu and had asked her teenage daughter to run an errand. The woman described her younger self as a ‘shy and petite teenager who looked more like an 11-year-old than a 14-year-old’.

She caught the train to Roodepoort station to pay an account for her mother and was on her way back home when the incident occurred.

“I was sitting on a bench at the station when a well-dressed young man came and stood in front of me,” she said.

She recalled how she immediately noticed his piercing eyes and curly dark hair.

The man introduced himself and told her that she should travel with him as her mother was sick and needed someone there with her.

Although she knew she should not speak to strangers, it was bitterly cold and she knew it might be a long wait for the next train. She remembers climbing into a small car that resembled a VW Beetle.

“Once inside the car, the man looked at me , smiled and said  ‘let’s go home’,” she recalled.

While driving towards Witpoortjie the man’s hand left the gear knob and drifted onto her knee. “He rubbed my knee and said,’ you’re a good girl, mommy would be proud’,” she added.

“Suddenly the hair on the back of my neck stood up, I couldn’t breathe properly and my head started pounding. And then I noticed that the man was planning to take the turn-off to Krugersdorp instead of taking me home. I knew I had to get away,” she said.

She recalled how she flung open the door, jumped out of the car and ran and hid in a garden.

“The car circled the block a few times. Once it was out of sight, I ran  home with tears streaming down my face.”

One January evening in 1990, she was at home half-watching the news, with her youngest child, then a baby, on her hip.

Her ears pricked up when she heard the words ‘serial killer’.

She said that when Van Rooyen’s face appeared on the screen she got such a fright she nearly dropped her baby.

“My knees buckled and my throat went dry. Those eyes – those were the same eyes.”

To this day it bothers her that Van Rooyen’s victims were not as fortunate as her.

“Listen to your gut feeling. Heed the warning, it may save your life,” she advised.