‘Facebook rapist’s’ famous jail pal

Cape Town-13-04-2012: Facebook killer Thabo Bester made his first appearance in then Cape Town High court pix Patrick Louw story Shellee Geduld

Cape Town-13-04-2012: Facebook killer Thabo Bester made his first appearance in then Cape Town High court pix Patrick Louw story Shellee Geduld

Published Aug 28, 2012

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The infamous “Facebook Rapist” has become best buddies with Blackheath taxi killer Jacob Humphreys behind bars.

Thabo Bester made the shocking revelation in an exclusive prison interview with the Daily Voice.

Bester, 23, is currently serving a 50-year sentence for brutally stabbing his model girlfriend Nomfundo Tyulu to death in a plush Cape guesthouse.

Humphreys, 56, is serving 20 years for the deaths of 10 school children who died in a taxi he was driving at a Blackheath level crossing two years ago.

Now the infamous pair have struck up a close relationship at the Drakenstein Correctional Centre in Paarl.

“We are both sort of high profile [prisoners] in here. We mainly discuss church,” Bester tells the Daily Voice.

“He [Humphreys] is an older man and I’m obviously very young.

“He gives me advice and I give him advice as well.”

The two exchanged a friendly glance as Humphreys walked passed Bester as we spoke to him in prison.

Humphreys was returning to his cell following a visit from his family at the weekend.

Both Bester and Humphreys have turned to God as they seek redemption for their terrible crimes in jail.

But Bester admits he is struggling to cope with prison life.

Despite admitting to killing his girlfriend, he says he did not expect to be handed a life sentence.

And the self-confessed ladies’ man says his life “hit rock bottom” the day he was locked up.

“When I got the life sentence, I thought it was too much [because] I’m not really a violent person,” Bester says.

“I am only 23 years old and life is a very long time.

“I have lost all my friends, I feel alone.

“I was put in a single cell because I am regarded as a so-called high-profile inmate so 90 percent of the time I am alone.

“To deal with everything I am taking anti-depressants, sleeping tablets and I see a psychologist three times a week.

“I sleep for 22 hours and the two hours I’m awake, I eat.”

When asked if he ever cries, Bester replies: “It is the only thing you can do here.

“It is like crying becomes your friend.”

Aside from his murder conviction, Bester is serving a 50-year prison sentence for raping two models in Durban.

He is also currently facing two fraud charges in Johannesburg, one in Cape Town and another charge for an armed robbery in Boksburg.

But Bester insists he never intended to embark on a life of crime.

“I tried to control my life but it didn’t work and I landed in prison for making some horrible decisions,” he says.

Bester says he was forced to fend for himself without any parental guidance from a very young age.

“I was from a broken home without a relationship with my mother or my father,” he says.

“I was raised by my grandmother who was a domestic worker.

“She died when I was 12 years old and from then on I was alone. I have no family.”

Daily Voice