Johannesburg - An alleged child rapist has reacted angrily to claims that he had also touched young boys inappropriately.
Mathys Petrus van Zyl on Thursday made it clear to the South Gauteng High Court, sitting in Palm Ridge, that his entire being was offended by the particular allegation.
“I am not gay, I don’t play with little boys,” he said.
“I will never in my life do something like that,” the 45-year-old said in reaction to the prosecutor’s line of questioning, which appeared to indicate he had touched the boys, aged 4 and 8.
Van Zyl is on trial for rape.
He is accused of inserting his fingers into 3-year-old *Denise’s vagina. The toddler was enrolled at a daycare centre at the time of the alleged rape.
Her 7-year-old twin sisters attended a primary school nearby.
The twins used to join Denise at the daycare centre after school.
Their mother *Petra had an agreement with one of the teachers at the daycare centre, the mother of the two young boys, that when she knocked off, she would take the children to her own home. Petra would then pick them up at about 8.30pm and pay the woman.
On September 3 last year, the teacher left her children, Denise, the twins and a 16-year-old girl at her house while she and her husband went out.
The girl is her husband’s niece and was visiting at the time.
The woman asked Van Zyl, her tenant of two months who slept in the lounge, to look after the children while she went out.
It is alleged that when Petra arrived, she found Denise sitting on the carpet, crying. She pointed to her “nunu”, saying it was sore.
Petra took off Denise’s underwear and saw blood on her vagina and underwear.
She waited until the next day as it was already late at night, and went to the NGK church nearby to ask for help.
She was told to go to the police.
Van Zyl was arrested.
During the trial, the twins – who testified on separate occasions – told the court that Van Zyl had taken their sister to the bathroom.
They had stood at the slightly ajar door and watched him undress and put his fingers in Denise’s vagina, with her mouth sealed shut with tape. From there, he allegedly did the same to the 16-year-old girl.
Afterwards, he allegedly took the boys to the bathroom one by one and touched them.
The twins also revealed that it was not the first time he had done this to Denise.
They said Van Zyl had taken their sister to the toilet in the past and told the two of them to “f***f”.
Van Zyl denied all the allegations against him on Thursday.
He asked to see the pictures of Denise’s bruised vagina taken by the police.
Van Zyl later shifted the blame to the 4-year-old boy, saying he heard that he had touched Denise.
He said he was bringing that to the attention of the court because no one was speaking about it.
Van Zyl said everyone who had testified that he had penetrated Denise or touched the other children was lying.
“This whole thing never happened. This is a fiction… a story book. In this story, everyone is lying,” he said.
The Star