Marianne Merten
For the second time in less than a month the Cape High Court has handed down guilty verdicts in two brutal gang rapes and stabbings but only one teenaged girl survived to testify.
Public attention focused on just the one case, although there are striking similarities: each girl was repeatedly raped, stabbed, had her throat cut and was left for dead after meeting her attackers in a shebeen. Both crawled naked into the street where residents found them. The attacks happened within six weeks on the Cape Flats.
This week Karriema Viljoen* was in court on her birthday to hear the guilty verdict against the two teenagers and man who raped and tried to kill her in August 1999.
Nigel Sampson (19), and Benjamien Knoop, who served jail time for attempted murder in a long list of prior convictions since 1968, were convicted of indecent assault. They were also convicted of gang raping another woman earlier that night. They were acquitted on four firearms-related counts.
Three weeks ago two men and a youth were convicted of murdering Valencia Farmer (14) after repeatedly raping her in an abandoned house in Eerste River on the Cape Flats. One man was acquitted.
Farmer identified some of her attackers mostly members of the local Naughty Boys gang of that night in June 1999 before she died of the more than 50 stab wounds.
Viljoen named two of her attackers, who later led police to a third accused. She survived and was described by Judge Willem Louw as an “excellent witness” despite having to relive the trauma in court.
“She got headaches and couldn’t eat before she testified,” says a relative, who cannot be named to protect Viljoen’s identity.
“She says she wants to look them in the eye. It will give her courage.”
Viljoen smiles shyly in the busy court corridor. The scars of the 30 stab wounds on her neck, chest, back and arms have healed. But the former grade 11 pupil has not returned to school.
“Hopefully it will go better once justice is served,” the relative says.
Testimony in court 15 showed how the trio decided to kill Viljoen because she wanted to “make a case” (go to the police) after the gang rape.
Gino Davids (19) testified that they decided not to allow her to lay charges.
Co-accused Knoop started stabbing with a broken-off beerbottleneck. He handed it to Sampson, who testified that he stabbed her as well.
Asked why, Sampson mumbled: “I don’t have a reason.”
Both teenagers admitted they wrapped a sheet around her neck and tried to strangle her while she was on the ground. “We meant to kill her,” testified Davids.
In the unfolding frenzy, Viljoen tried to get up and move away, but collapsed. She was forced to masturbate one accused, give oral sex to another and endure forced anal sex. She was also kicked before having her throat slit with a piece of glass.
Both teenagers changed their not guilty plea to admit to raping and trying to kill Viljoen. Sampson also admitted to raping another woman, Johanna Micheals*, a few hours earlier. With their heads bowed and speaking quietly, Davids and Sampson respectively apologised for their actions.
The heavily tattooed Knoop, through his defence advocate, let the court know he was not present during the offences and did not testify.
What has emerged in court is that Davids and Sampson went to a shebeen where they met Knoop. The three men walked home two women they had met there. Michaels lived in a Wendy house in the backyard of the home of the other woman.
The judge found that the trio forced their way inside pretending Micheals owed them money. Despite slightly differing accounts he said “the visit was not peaceful” and found the trio guilty of raping Micheals while her husband lay hidden under the bed.
After midnight the three went to another shebeen. There they met Viljoen.
When the shebeen closed the four returned to the Wendy house to look for Sampson’s cap. No one was there as Micheals and her husband went to the police station to report the rapes.
The court heard how Sampson, the first to rape Viljoen, told the others: “I am finished, guys.” Later she was left for dead.
Sentencing in the Farmer case is set for Monday. In the Viljoen case it is set for May 5 so that a social worker can submit pre-sentencing reports on behalf of the two teenagers.
* Not their real names