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Alleged “Sunday rapist” Johannes Jacobus Steyn has denied knowing murdered teenager Louise de Waal.
“I do not know a Louise de Waal at all,” he told the High Court sitting in the Palm Ridge Magistrate's Court in Alberton on Monday.
De Waal's mother, sitting in the public gallery, exclaimed: “I don't believe it.”
Judge Sita Kolbe warned if court was disrupted again, proceedings would be held in camera.
Steyn testified that he went to find a prostitute on the day of De Waal's murder in October 2011. This would explain, he said, why his cellphone GPS placed him near where De Waal's body was found. He said he took the prostitute to the Hekpoort area because he was concerned his wife would come home.
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.
De Waal's family attended the proceedings. They wore badges with a picture of her face. Members of rights group Woman and Men against Child Abuse were outside the court building.
Steyn said he went home around noon on October 12, 2012 and picked his son up from school at 3pm. He said he heard about De Waal's kidnapping on the radio and that police were looking for a silver bakkie. When he got home he saw police outside his house.
“I was scared to approach police with my son in the car... You hear stories about people being arrested and then they just leave the kids there.”
He said he took his son to a friend's house and phoned his wife and told her she should find out what was going on.
“I felt guilty about the thing with my wife (the affairs) and decided to see a priest.”
He then decided to drive to KwaZulu-Natal. Once there, he tried to commit suicide before handing himself over at the Margate police station.
Anton Lerm, for Steyn, asked his client whether he knew the 11 alleged “Sunday rapist” victims, aged between 11 and 18. Steyn replied he did not know any of the girls.
Asked why GPS co-ordinates on his phone always put him in the vicinity where the girls were abducted, he said he had numerous affairs. He said he often made use of prostitutes on the West Rand and around Pretoria. These locations coincided with where these girls were kidnapped, he said.
“I have my weakness with the opposite sex.”
Lerm asked Steyn if he had made any admissions related to these crimes to his ex-wife.
“I made no admissions to her,” he said. - Sapa