Cape Town – The man accused of raping and murdering 6-year-old Delvina Europa from Elim in the Western Cape pleaded guilty on Monday.
Reagan Zietsman appeared in the Bredasdorp Magistrate’s Court and was immediately convicted.
Zietsman, a neighbour of the girl, faced charges of kidnapping, rape, murder and defeating the administration of justice.
Europa was last seen on Sunday, March 24 2019 while playing in front of a neighbour’s home in Nuwestaat when she disappeared.
The Grade 1 pupil from Elim Moravian Primary School was reported missing the next day and on Tuesday the community found her body in a bush.
In his affidavit to the court, Zietsman detailed what he had done to Europa.
He admitted to knowing Europa as he is friends with her father, and the Saturday of her disappearance he did drugs with her father.
The day of her disappearance, he admitted to looking for her father and found the girl instead, who went with him in search of her father.
He said they walked over a field in the direction of a school for the disabled and when they arrived at the bushes he decided to rape her.
Zietsman said he penetrated the little girl with his penis and ejaculated into her vagina.
In order to keep Europa quiet, he placed his hand over her nose and mouth, smothering her to death.
Zietsman said in order to try to destroy the evidence, as he knew his semen would be found, he placed her in shallow water.
He also admitted to lying to members of the community when he was questioned about Europa’s disappearance because he was scared that if he told the truth, the “community and the street committee would have assaulted me for what I did".
African News Agency (ANA)