A Pretoria High Court judge issued a strong warning on Tuesday against media reporting that could defeat the ends of justice.
Judge Ronnie Bosielo said a possible travesty of justice could have resulted from the way the arrest and first court appearance of serial rapist Simon Malatji was reported.
Malatji (31) was on Tuesday convicted on 32 counts of rape, robbery, indecent assault and kidnapping involving 17 different women.
The judge said the media — in reporting on the matter — overstepped what he described as ”the legal bounds of responsible reporting”.
”Contrary to the instructions of the South African Police Service senior communications officer, the media went so far as to give a description of the suspect … It is common cause that a photo of the accused was shown on the news on e.tv on October 11 2004 when he appeared in court,” Bosielo said.
”Such conduct has the potential of undermining and placing in jeopardy the criminal justice system. Such conduct might result in a travesty of justice where a guilty person might be acquitted because of technical defects in the state’s case.”
Bosielo said the state had been fortunate to have other pieces of evidence available so that Malatji was not unjustly convicted.
He said the evidence in the trial pointed to only one conclusion — it was Malatji who had raped and robbed all of the complainants.
Malatji admitted having sex with one woman (to whom he was linked through DNA), but claimed she was a prostitute and that he had paid her.
He alleged the rest of the victims had mistakenly identified him as their attacker because of alleged undue influence by the investigating officer and because a description and photos of him had appeared in the media.
Bosielo rejected Malatji’s claims, saying there was unmistakable evidence of a plan and modus operandi carried out with clinical precision.
In all cases, Malatji had posed as a taxi-queue marshal, luring his victims to deserted places where he suddenly turned aggressive, robbing and raping them.
Malatji was linked to four of the incidents through DNA evidence.
Four of his victims helped police to arrest him at a busy Pretoria taxi rank. Other victims also pointed him out at official police identity parades.
All had given a similar description of him to police, who battled for years to track him down because of a nondescript appearance.
Malatji will be sentenced on March 27. — Sapa