Palm Ridge, Vereeeniging -
The alleged “Sunday rapist” would not call any alibi witness because they were “scared of the media”, he told the High Court on Wednesday.
During cross-examination Carina Coetzee, for the State, asked the rape and murder-accused, Johannes Jacobus Steyn, why he had not called anyone of his alibi witnesses to verify his whereabouts.
He said he could either not reach them or they refused.
“I am not going to force anyone to testify,” he said.
“So you are not going to call one of your alibi witnesses?” Coetzee asked.
“That is correct,” Steyn said.
“They are scared of the media, they are scared of the cameras. This is my battle and I must fight it.”
She put it to him that he would not call any alibis because they did not exist.
“They exist in your head,” Coetzee said.
Throughout her three-day cross-examination, Coetzee questioned Steyn why he was always in the vicinity where each of the alleged 'Sunday rapist' victims were kidnapped and assaulted.
Steyn has given numerous alibis varying from affairs with prostitutes to helping friends to tow their cars.
Steyn has pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder, 11 of rape, 10 of sexual assault, 10 of kidnapping, one of attempted sexual assault, and one of attempted kidnapping.
Coetzee again questioned him on a confession he made to a magistrate after the murder of teenager Louise de Waal in October 2011 in which Steyn said he phoned his wife telling her what happened.
Coetzee asked how he could have done so if he did not at that stage know what had happened.
“It was a lie. I just asked her to go and look what was going on at the house,” he said.
Judge Sita Kolbe then intervened and asked how at the time he could have said he made an admission to his wife if he now maintained he only had a conversation with her.
In the confession Steyn said he phoned his wife and told her he took another girl and he did something terrible.
He also described himself as a monster in the confession.
“That was just what came into my head... It is what the media would call me,” he said.
He has maintained, since the start of the trial, that he was forced to make the confession.
On Tuesday Coetzee put it to Steyn that the purported confession was strikingly similar to actual events, and read from it an apology to the victims and their families.
Coetzee asked Steyn how he would describe a person who kidnapped, raped and in some cases murdered teenage girls, the modus operandi of the 'Sunday rapist'.
“Desperate maybe... maybe someone who doesn't have much feeling for other people. I don't know, I'm not someone who judges other people too quickly,” he said.
Coetzee asked if this man, who traumatised these teenage girls, could be described as a monster.
“I can't say. Maybe a person who is desperate, a person who needed to satisfy urges. I don't know what was going on in their head.”
He said he would not want to comment unless he knew the person's background.
Coetzee queried Steyn when he said he had not thought about the 'Sunday rapist' often. She asked how this was possible if this man caused Steyn to be incarcerated for almost a year.
He said it felt like he was being punished for cheating on his wife and it was a time to get closer to God. He had not really given it much thought.
Coetzee also asked if it did not bother him that this man was still free and could harm other children.
“I looked in the newspapers and I haven't seen anything since my arrest.”
She also asked if his feelings towards the 'Sunday rapist' changed when he saw the nine victims during their testimony and if he felt sorry for the girls.
“I didn't look at them much. I was making notes,” he said at first.
He then admitted such a man probably had a problem.
“I did feel sorry for (the girls). I went back (to the cells) and prayed for them, for him (the 'Sunday rapist'), for myself and for lots of other people.” - Sapa