Cape Town - State advocate Lenro Badenhorst was unable to conclude his arguments before Acting Judge Alan Maher on Wednesday due to the sheer volume of charges against Moyhdian Pangkaeker, who was on trial in the Western Cape High Court.
The State is seeking guilty convictions on 25 counts of rape, murder, kidnapping, child exploitation, indecent assault, sexual assault, common assault, incest, violating a corpse and absconding from monitoring while he was on parole.
On Wednesday, advocate Badenhorst had only begun with the evidence pertaining to the rape, kidnap, murder and desecration of 8-year-old Tazne van Wyk when the court had to adjourn proceedings until today.
He said the State relied on circumstantial evidence to secure a guilty finding.
Badenhorst asked the court to accept the evidence of witnesses (minors at the time of the alleged offences) who testified in-camera about the sexual abuses they endured allegedly at the hands of Pangkaeker.
With regards to a single witness whose testimony was used as evidence for 13 alleged offences, Badenhorst argued that the witness was truthful and her evidence reliable.
“The multiple sexual abuse by the accused made her say that she suffered from nightmares and sleeplessness,” he said.
“The complainant was a single witness and a child at the time of the events and her evidence must be scrutinised to see whether there is corroboration and is clear in all material aspects. There were so many incidents that the complainant became confused about what happened in what sequence.”
Badenhorst explained that based on the evidence, Pangkaeeker seemingly had a pattern.
“The similar fact evidence showed that the accused had a special sexual interest in female children and always tried to isolate them away from other persons when he perpetrated his heinous deeds,” he said.
Badenhorst went on to discredit Pangkaeker’s testimony as lacking in credibility and that of a poor witness.
“His version is not to be believed” and “the accused blatantly lied”, Badenhorst argued.
“The accused was generally such a poor witness that his denial of the events can be rejected. The accused asked more questions than providing answers,” Badenhorst said.
He said that Pangkaeker accusing witnesses of bribery was him “grasping at straws” and that his denial of alleged offences by saying he was at work or in another town was fabricated.
Badenhorst further requested the indictment be amended to include certain elements of the victims’ testimony which exacerbated the initial charges.
The State will continue in arguments today.