Cape Town - An alleged rapist from Grassy Park is behind bars after clever cops realised his parents were telling lies to keep him out of jail.
The 26-year-old man, who is accused of raping his former wife, was caught after cops refused to listen to his parents and found him hiding in the back of a bakkie during a search of their home.
Grassy Park Police Station commander Colonel Dawood Laing says detectives from the Nyanga Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences Unit (FCS) contacted the station after they could not find the suspect.
“The case was reported at Lansdowne Police Station and transferred to FCS for investigation,” he explains.
“According to the information given to us he is accused of raping his ex-wife earlier this month and has been untraceable since then.
“Due to our success with tracing suspects linked to rape and sexual assault cases they reached out to us for help.”
Laing says Captain Wynita Kleinsmith and her team set out to find the suspect and their first stop was his parents’ home in Grassy Park, but on arrival officers were stopped from entering as the family was apparently “busy praying”.
“They told her they were making salaah (praying) and the cops could not come in,” says Laing.
“The officers were prevented from entering, but they stayed and waited until the family was done praying.
“After a long while the father came to the door and told officers that he had not seen his son for nearly a month.”
Kleinsmith informed the father of the charges against his son and insisted she was required to search the home.
“The insistent father even told her he would hand his son over to the police and told her only one officer could enter the house, but she refused to enter alone and took another female officer with her.”
Armed only with a picture of the suspect, Kleinsmith searched every room in the house, but could not find the suspect.
However, she believed something was amiss.
“She heard something in the yard and went to look and found the suspect hiding at the back of a bakkie and covered with blankets.
“She arrested him and the family was very upset, even the grandmother was shouting that he is not a rapist,” he says.
The man was expected to appear in the Wynberg Magistrates’ Court on Monday on rape charges.
Laing warned that parents who hide their children who are wanted by police could themselves face serious charges.
In 2018 Grassy Park cops arrested the parents of convicted killer, Moegsien Haywood, after they found him hiding in a secret room created by his parents in their Lotus River home.
Haywood was on the Western Cape’s Top 10 most dangerous criminals list and Moegsien and Juleiga Haywood were charged with harbouring a fugitive.