Temana is serial rapist, court rules

INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPERS

Serial rapist Reginald Temana waiting in the dock for his case to start. Photo: Phil Magakoe

Related Stories

• Serial rapist convicted
• ‘Face of rape accused seared on my mind’
• Serial rape accused: I’m a Casanova
• Scar, DNA link accused to rapes

The State has proved beyond reasonable doubt that Reginald Temana, 20, was the Pretoria CBD serial rapist who targeted nine women waiting for taxis in the region of Bloed and Boom streets during a five-month reign of terror.

Pretoria High Court Judge Cynthia Pretorius has convicted Temana of eight counts of rape, one of attempted rape, three of robbery with aggravating circumstances, and five of theft.

The State failed to prove that an unidentified woman found dead at Schubart Park flats in February 2010 had been raped and murdered. The judge said although Temana’s semen had been found on the woman, it could not be established whether she had consented to having sex. Also, it could not be determined whether she died because she had fallen or because she had jumped from a height of several metres.

Temana was acquitted on another charge of rape as the complainant failed to turn up to testify.

The court found that it was clear in the cases of the eight other women that Temana had raped them.

The ninth woman managed to get away by kicking him in his private parts after he tried to rape her.

All these women did not hesitate when identifying Temana as their rapist. They recognised his face in seconds at an identity parade. They also said he was a short man and had a scar on his chest.

While testifying in his defence, Temana offered to bare his chest to show the court his scar. He said the scar was smaller than the women had described, but the judge found it was similar to their descriptions.

All the women – one of them a 16-year-old – told a similar tale about a young man who was friendly when he approached them, but who later turned into a vicious abuser and rapist.

Some of the women said he accosted them while they were waiting for a taxi near the zoo. In some cases it was only seconds before he threatened them and then dragged them up a hill, next to Langenhoven High School, where he raped them.

Others were lured to the hill by friendly promises of showing them a short cut to where they wanted to go.

Most of the women were in tears as they testified about being slapped and money and cellphones being taken from them before they were thrown to the ground and raped.

Several women told Judge Pretorius that they would not be able to erase the face of the rapist from their minds.

Some were raped within a few days of each other. Afterwards, the brazen attacker was not afraid to prowl the area again and again, looking for potential victims.

Temana was not arrested until March 2010, when one of the women, hours after she had been raped, spotted him in town. She pointed him out to taxi drivers, who apprehended him and called the police.

Temana took the police to his home to recover the belongings of his last victim, but he told them she was his girlfriend.

The woman denied in court she was his girlfriend and cried bitterly as she told of her frightening experience at his hands.

Temana portrayed himself to the court as a modern-dayCasanova, saying he had so many girlfriends he could not recall whether the women who accused him of rape were among them.

He said he walked the streets at night and often brought women home. He also often paid for the services of prostitutes, he said. He could not remember the faces of all the women he had sex with, as there were so many, he said. He liked women, but it was a “man thing” he doubted the woman prosecutor would understand.

Grilled at length by the State about why all the complainants said he had raped them, the only answer Temana had was: “I have nothing to say.”

The matter was postponed to July 12 for a report before sentencing.

Pretoria News