Werner Menges
16 April 2008
Windhoek — A 24-year-old man who is accused of raping, murdering and robbing a 15-year-old boy at Mariental almost two years ago pleaded not guilty to all charges when his trial started in the High Court in Windhoek this week.
Ashley van Wyk is facing charges of murder, rape and robbery with aggravating circumstances in his trial before Acting Judge Hosea Angula.
He pleaded not guilty to all three counts when State advocate Andrew Muvirimi put the charges to him on Monday.
It is alleged that Van Wyk killed a 15-year-old boy, Kain Pienaar, at Mariental on May 15 2006.
The prosecution is charging that on the day he was killed, Pienaar met Van Wyk near the road leading from Mariental to Maltahoehe.
It is alleged that Van Wyk lured Pienaar to an area near the Fish River, where he tied Pienaar's hands behind his back.
He then raped Pienaar, it is alleged, and killed him by strangling him and hitting him on the head with an unknown object.
After that, Van Wyk allegedly threw Pienaar's body into a pool of water and took a bag containing clothes and shoes that Pienaar had had with him.
Van Wyk later threw all or some of the clothes away and sold Pienaar's shoes, it is also alleged.
Van Wyk's defence counsel, Louis Karsten, told Acting Judge Angula after Van Wyk's pleas of not guilty that Van Wyk is admitting that Pienaar was killed on May 15 2006, but he is denying that he had the intention to kill him.
He is also admitting that he took a bag containing clothes and shoes from Pienaar on the same day, but denies having committed robbery, Karsten further indicated.
Karsten yesterday told one of the witnesses in the trial that Van Wyk's version of the events that took place on the day of Pienaar's death is that he and Pienaar were playing with each other and swimming in the Fish River, and that they were also tying each other up with a rope while playing.
During this playing, Van Wyk threw a clod of clay at Pienaar, Karsten said.
This hit Pienaar against the head, he said.
According to medical doctor Elizabeth Shangula, who performed an autopsy on Pienaar's remains on May 23 2006, her conclusion was that he had died of a head injury.
She told Acting Judge Angula on Monday that she found that Pienaar had sustained a circular skull fracture, which in her opinion could have been caused by an instrument like a hammer.
Moderate to excessive force must have been used to inflict such an injury, she said.
Tests that were done by another doctor excluded the possibility that Pienaar had drowned, she said.
Pienaar's hands were still tied behind his back with a piece of rope when she started doing the post-mortem examination, she said.
Photographs taken at the scene where Pienaar's body was found in a shallow pool of water - the photos are now part of the evidence in the trial - show that his arms were tied tightly at the elbows with a piece of rope.
A 14-year-old relative of Van Wyk told Acting Judge Angula yesterday that she saw Van Wyk tying the boy's hands at the river on the morning of May 15 2006.
She said she and Van Wyk were on their way to the home of a friend of hers when they found a small boy hitch-hiking next to the road.
Van Wyk asked the boy where he was going, and he replied that he was on his way to Maltahoehe, the witness said.
Van Wyk told the boy that he should not hike on his own, and because he was too small, Van Wyk was going to help him with the hitch-hiking, the witness said.
She testified that she left Van Wyk and the boy behind as she continued on her way to her friend's house.
After she had finished eating at the friend's house, she went to look for Van Wyk, she testified.
He and the boy were no longer where she had left them, so she followed their tracks from there.
She was still following the tracks when she heard screaming, she said.
She ran closer to the screaming, which came from the direction of the river, she said.
"I heard him crying," she testified.
"I stood behind a bush and I saw them," she said.
"I saw (Van Wyk) tying the boy's hands.
And he lay the child down.
The child stood up and ran off, but he was slow.
(Van Wyk) picked up something and threw it at him.
The child lay down. He then threw the child into the river.
That's all I saw, then I ran away."
Dr Shangula also testified that she concluded that there was a possibility that Pienaar may have been penetrated anally, because she found signs of possible bruising in his rectum and could see that his anal muscle was "dilated", which she found to be unusual.
Tests that were done at the Namibia Institute of Pathology on tissue samples that Dr Shangula collected from Pienaar's body however did not produce results confirming bruising or bleeding in the boy's rectum, the court heard yesterday.
Dr Shangula told the court on Monday that she was not in a position to say what had caused bleeding that she found in the tissues on the left side of Pienaar's neck. Typical signs of strangulation - such as bleeding in the eyes and lungs - were absent with Pienaar, Dr Shangula said.
In his cross-examination, Karsten asked Dr Shangula if it was possible that the skull fracture could have been caused by a stone thrown against his head.
Dr Shangula's answer was that this was a possibility, if it was a round stone that was involved.
The trial is scheduled to continue today. Van Wyk is in Police custody.
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