A Mozambican national spent more than a year awaiting trial for rape and attempted murder in South Africa, while forensic evidence clearing him had been available four months after his arrest.
Charges of rape and attempted murder were withdrawn against Lui Emmanuel Sipoge in the Pretoria Regional Court on Tuesday.
He was accused of raping a 65-year-old woman recovering from cancer surgery in the Pretoria Academic hospital. He was subsequently charged with her murder, when she died after the alleged attack.
Sipoge was arrested in February last year after security guards at the hospital handed him over to police as the man they found wandering around the wards in the early hours of the morning.
Earlier, nurses said they had seen a man on top of the 65-year-old and screamed to alert the guards.
However, the court heard on Tuesday that forensic reports exculpating Sipoge of the woman’s death had been available to the state since June 20 last year.
Prosecutor George Pieterse said forensic evidence showed no signs of forced sexual penetration, and a post-mortem established the woman died of natural causes due to the cancer.
Blood found on the woman’s bed sheets was her own and that of an unknown person, while blood found on Sipoge’s clothing was his own.
Pieterse said that after having spoken to witnesses on Tuesday morning, they indicated the room in which they had seen the alleged attacker had been very dark and they could not positively identify Sipoge as the attacker.
Furthermore, it was revealed Sipoge had been a patient at the hospital on the night of the alleged attack and not someone who had wandered in from the street as earlier suggested.
Pretoria Academic hospital faced criticism over its security measures last year because of this.
Sipoge had been admitted to the hospital the night before the alleged attack when nurses brought him in after he had been assaulted at a shebeen, said Pieterse. According to the report, blood found on Sipoge’s clothes corresponded with his injuries.
A relieved Sipoge, dressed neatly in a black jacket and wearing gold-rimmed glasses, left the court a free man after one year, three months and two days in custody.
Magistrate Graham Travis told Sipoge although charges had been dropped, he was not acquitted.
Travis said that should more evidence in the matter surface, Sipoge could be brought back to court to face the charges. — Sapa