Cape Town - A 25-year-old man has been sentenced to two life terms in the Eastern Cape High Court sitting in Gqeberha for the rape and murder of a 5-year-old.
Ricardo Gysman was convicted of murdering the child and disposing of her body in a toilet in the Withoogter informal settlement.
According to the provincial spokesperson for the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), Luxolo Tyali, Gysman had committed a rape prior to the child’s murder.
On November 10, a 50-year-old woman was on her way to visit a friend near her home in Brakkenfontein informal settlement on Rocklands Roads in the district of Gqeberha.
She walked a short distance beyond Gysman’s home when she heard someone running up from behind her.
The court heard that Gysman grabbed the woman and pushed her to the ground. He threatened to kill her with the knife he had if she screamed. He raped her.
“After her ordeal, she remained still on the ground and only left after she thought that Gysman had fallen asleep in his shack, and she walked home without her pants and her undergarments on.
“She slept, as it was late, and reported the matter to her friend the following morning and later to the police, leading to the arrest of Gysman, who was linked to the crime through DNA,” Tyali said.
While out on bail for the vicious rape, on the evening of August 2, 2019, a 5-year-old girl went missing after she had been sleeping in her home in the Withoogter informal settlement, the same area where Gysman had committed his last crime.
The child had been left at home with her 9-year-old cousin by her mother, who went to visit a friend at the time.
The child’s body was discovered inside a toilet the next day.
Members of the community soon suspected Gysman of the murder after he was seen in the same house as the little girl on the night she disappeared.
Police were called and he was arrested.
“Even though Gysman was also linked through DNA to the two rapes and murder of the 5-year-old, he maintained he was innocent, but the judge found that he constantly adapted his version of events during cross-examination by advocate Ismat Cerfontein,” Tyali said.
Gysman was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of the little girl as well as life imprisonment for her rape.
The court further sentenced him to 10 years’ imprisonment for the rape of his 50-year-old victim.
The sentences were ordered to run concurrently with one life imprisonment term.