PORT ELIZABETH - DNA POSITIVELY LINKS HORRIFIC FARM ATTACK SUSPECT TO VIOLENT RAPE OF HANKEY WOMAN

DNA samples taken from a man accused of raping a woman and violently attacking her family at their Hankey farmhouse was an exact match to DNA swabs which were on bed sheets and shorts.

Forensic analyst, Warrant Officer Kirsty Heynes, testified in the Port Elizabeth High Court on Thursday and said she also compared the matching DNA from the Hankey crime scene to another case linking the man in Patensie. Items tested in the Patensie case were a knife, two cloths and a balaclava.

"DNA reference samples received from the accused was an exact match of the semen collected at the crime scene," said Heynes.

Heynes said that the result on one of the cloths was an exact match in the Hankey case.

. On March 23 last year, an attacker stormed the family home in Hankey just after 8pm while the woman had gotten into bed to watch TV and her children were in their lounge. Her husband had gone on a hunting trip, leaving the children 15, 12 and 9 at home with their mother.

Sebenzile Simane, 32, has pleaded not guilty to a string of charges which include housebreaking, robbery, kidnapping, rape, attempted rape, causing children to witness a sexual offence, attempted murder, unlawful possession of firearm and ammunition and robbery with aggravating circumstances.

The woman has already testified and recalled the horrific four-hour ordeal. She told the court how she and her children were attacked and terrorised by Simane who tied them up and raped her twice, once in full view of her 12-year-old daughter.

The former farm worker made his way inside the bedroom through a sliding door after he fired shots and shattered the glass.

In the bedroom, Simane pointed a gun towards the nine-year-old boy's head. The woman said the attacker was agitated because her teenage son had disappeared.

A while later he pushed the family members into the lounge and her teenager son walked in with his hands up.

“He was very aggressive with us, he threatened to shoot [the boys]. The children were petrified but quiet because they didn’t want to do anything to make him more angry,” she said.

According to the woman, Simane believed that R9,000 was owed to him and he kept telling the children he was angry with their father.

He was arrested a week after the incident and Sergeant Bulelani Mabuza told the court that Simane had claimed that he had been wearing a red skipper, a blue pants and baseball hat at the time of his arrest.

According to his lawyer's instruction, Simane claimed that he was wearing a yellow top, brown pants and brown shoes on the day of his arrest in Hankey.

Simane also claimed that the cops told him to put on certain clothing that was depicted in a photo taken by police at the time of his arrest.

"He tells lies, my co-workers can testify about this," said Mabuza.

via - IOL