7 plead not guilty to teen’s rape, murder
Cape Town 19-03-2009-A dissapointed Jacqueline Rex mother of murdered Cytheria Rex leaves the Bluedowns magistrates court where the bail application was posponed till tomorrow. Pic Noor Slamdien Cape Town 19-03-2009-A dissapointed Jacqueline Rex mother of murdered Cytheria Rex leaves the Bluedowns magistrates court where the bail application was posponed till tomorrow. Pic Noor Slamdien
Seven young men accused of brutally raping and murdering a Cape Town teenager claim they are innocent.
The suspects pleaded not guilty on Monday as the long-awaited murder trial finally got underway after years of delays and postponements.
Cytheria’s heartbroken mom Jacqueline Rex was stunned at the men’s plea of innocence.
Speaking to the Daily Voice after the hearing, Jacqueline asked: “If they plead innocent – then who murdered my daughter in such a gruesome manner?”
Cytheria’s naked and mutilated corpse was found in an open field in Eikendal, Kraaifontein, on Sunday, February 22, 2009.
The 18-year-old girl was raped, stabbed and had her stomach sliced open.
Her body was then loaded into a wheelie-bin before being dumped in the field.
A grisly trail of blood left by the bin enabled cops to pinpoint the house where Cytheria was viciously murdered.
Local resident Jonathan Benjamin on Monday told Blue Downs Magistrates’ Court how he discovered Cytheria’s body as he was on his way to church.
He said he knew something was seriously wrong when he saw that the body lying in the field was naked.
“A bergie would not lay naked, in other words something was wrong,” Benjamin said.
Fearing the victim was someone he knew, he immediately knocked on the door of neighbour Ricardo Leenders.
Leenders later testified that he saw Cytheria walking with two of the suspects near his house the night before she was murdered.
But his testimony was slammed during cross-examination when he admitted he could not say with certainty which of the suspects was with Cytheria.
Constable Andrew West from the Kraaifontein SAPD was the first officer on the scene.
He testified that he noticed five stab wounds to Cytheria – three to her chest and two in her right side.
The seven young men who appeared in court on Monday – the youngest of whom was just 16 at the time of the murder – were all arrested by cops shortly after Cytheria’s body was found.
All of the accused – Virgil Sass, 19, Oswill Grootboom, 20, Imeraan Hendricks, 20, Lee Cloete, 21, Rhonwen Rhode, 23, Warren Robertson, 23, and Keenan Lewis, 23, who are all from the Kraaifontein area – have pleaded not guilty to raping and murdering the teenage girl.
However, none of the accused gave a reason for pleading not guilty.
Supporters of the accused are also speculating about the identity of two witnesses after it was revealed that two State witnesses were in jail.
Cytheria’s mother Jacqueline was alone at court on Monday because other family members thought the case would be postponed yet again.
The distraught mom says even she is relieved the trial will bring her closer to closure – but said it was also reopening all of her old wounds.
“The amount of times she was stabbed, what they used and all those things will be opened again and it hurts,” she tells the Daily Voice.
Jacqueline prays the wait for the past three years will not have been in vain.
“I understand that they had a lot of investigation to take care of and get their facts in order,” the heartbroken mom adds.
“Now I just hope that the wait wasn’t all for nothing.”
*This article was published in the Daily Voice