The 57-year-old serial rapist, kidnapper and child murdered responsible for the death of Tazne van Wyk faces nine life sentences behind bars. This totals 225 years. The Western Cape High Court describes the convict as a ‘deceitful, manipulative and cruel individual’ who cannot reintegrate into society.
Tazne’s killer finally behind bars
He is convicted on 21 of the 27 charges. Four of them relate to Tazne’s death, reports EWN. Other charges include:
- eight counts of rape of children
- sexual assault
- sexual exploitation of children
- kidnapping
- incest
- desecration of a corpse
- absconding from parole
- assault of children
SmileFM has refrained from naming the killer in order to protect the identity of other victims.
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‘A monster’ among us
The murderer maintained his innocence throughout the trial. But Judge Alan Maher did not mince his words when he delivered his judgement in court.
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deceitful, manipulative and cruel individual…I am of the view that the accused poses a danger to society, and a danger to women and children in particular. He showed no remorse, had a ‘dark heart’, and is unlikely to be rehabilitated
Maher further says the accused was not content with ‘just raping, kidnapping and murdering Tazne’ mentioning how the killer desecrated her body and discarded it in a stormwater drain.
After he kidnapped Tazne, he had ample opportunity to change his mind. She died alone, away from her family in the dark and most probably in a lot of pain
A postmortem reveals that Tazne was raped and had her ‘hand and wrist’ removed. The court said the accused cut off her hand in an attempt to remove evidence after she scratched him.
Leaving a child to die
The sexual assaults occured between 2016 and 2019. He was also on parole at the time of the crimes. The gruesome murder of Tazne brought these under the spotlight.
He has 11 previous convictions dating back to 1981, reports Daily Maverick. This includes culpable homicide and murder. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison (April 2008) and granted parole five years later. He was arrested again in August 2015.
The accused was paroled for the second time between October 2016 to May 2019. He then disappeared in 2019 and seen by Correctional Services a year later in 2020 – when he murdered Tazne van Wyk.
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The 8-year-old child disappeared after going to a local tuck shop near her home in Elsies River in February 2020. Her body was later found in the same month, in a stormwater drain along the N1 highway near Worcester.
