'Sunday Rapist' in court for Louise de Waal's murder

The self-confessed ‘Sunday Rapist’, accused of murdering Roodepoort schoolgirl Louise de Waal in October, will appear in the Krugersdorp magistrate’s court on Tuesday.

Johannes Jacobus Steyn faces 13 charges of rape, 10 of kidnapping, one of murder and six of sexual assault.

Steyn allegedly abducted De Waal in Roodepoort, west of Johannesburg, in October, just before her 17th birthday. A burnt body, believed to be hers, was found on a farm in Magaliesburg later the same day.

De Waal’s family told the media the 17-year-old Hoërskool Die Burger pupil’s body had been identified by a belly ring and earrings.

Steyn handed himself over at the Margate police station in KwaZulu-Natal the next day.

Police said Steyn had confessed to being the “Sunday rapist”, but not to being De Waal’s murderer. He had allegedly raped a number of young girls in Gauteng and the North West, mostly on Sundays, since 2008.

Two cases of kidnapping Steyn allegedly committed in Rustenburg and Potchefstroom in the North West, would also be heard at the Krugersdorp Magistrate’s Court. This was after the state applied for all cases against him to be centralised.—Sapa