A 17-year-old State witness on Wednesday told the Durban High Court he was forced to rape a young woman at knifepoint.
"Accused one pointed a knife at me saying 'get onto her'," he testified at the trial of his four co-accused. The youth last year pleaded guilty to taking part in gang-raping Jessica Foord. He cannot be named as he is a minor.
The four accused - whose names also cannot be released as they have not pleaded - sat in the dock listening attentively to the testimony.
They are aged between 18 and 26.
"I was afraid. He told me not to mention that as long as I was in the police station," he said.
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A short while later during cross examination, he contradicted himself saying: "He had pointed a firearm at me".
Lawyer for accused one Deen Govender pounced on the statement and asked: "First you say he pointed a knife at you, then you say it was a firearm... which is it?"
The witness said he had made a mistake and that it was in fact a knife.
On March 2 last year, Foord, then aged 21, and her dad Tim were walking their dogs at the Polo Pony Dam in Hillcrest when five men brandishing knives and guns confronted them.
Foord was repeatedly raped, allegedly by four of the men, while her father, who was tied to a tree by the fifth assailant, was forced to watch.
Jewellery, cellphones and a wallet were stolen from them.
The gang fled in Tim's Isuzu bakkie and were later caught by police.
The witness pleaded guilty to robbery and rape charges and was currently serving a 17-year prison term, of which half would be spent in a juvenile facility.
On the day in question, he said he and his co-accused had seen the victims pass them on a road to the dam.
They were later seen "exercising their dogs". The witness said he and his accomplices had gone to the dam to fish.
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