Child murder and rape trial set for September

THE trial of former security guard Lesley Kukame, who is accused of raping and murdering a three-and-a-half-year-old girl in Windhoek two years ago, is set to start in the High Court in Windhoek in the last week of September.

The starting date of Kukame’s trial was set when Kukame made a second pre-trial appearance in the High Court yesterday. During his appearance before Judge President Petrus Damaseb, Kukame’s defence counsel, Ivo dos Santos, also handed to the court a pre-trial statement setting out Kukame’s expected pleas to the three charges that he faces.Kukame will plead not guilty to all charges, and will not be making any admissions, it is indicated in the statement.Kukame (27) was arrested on February 10 2005, following the discovery of the body of a three-and-a-half-year-old girl, Manuela Sofia //Hoesemas, at the disused Katutura Cinema Hall in Windhoek.It is alleged that Kukame had been posted at the Cinema Hall as a security guard in the period between February 7 and 10 2005, when //Hoesemas went missing from a house where her grandmother and aunt lived next to the hall.In the indictment setting out the counts of murder, rape and abduction, alternatively kidnapping, that Kukame is set to face, it is alleged that at some time during the three days that //Hoesemas was missing, Kukame had invited her to go with him to the Cinema Hall.There he took her into a generator and ventilator room, where he raped and sodomised her, injuring her seriously, it is charged.He murdered her by stuffing her panties into her mouth and strangling her with his hands or her jersey, which he tied around her neck, it is also alleged in the indictment.Kukame was sent for psychiatric observation soon after his arrest.By mid-April 2005 a State psychiatrist reported back to the Windhoek Magistrate’s Court that Kukame was found to have been sane at the time of his alleged crimes, and that he could be held accountable for his alleged deeds.The trial dates that have been fixed are from September 24 to October 5, Deputy Prosecutor General Antonia Verhoef informed the Judge President during yesterday’s proceedings.Kukame remains in custody.During his appearance before Judge President Petrus Damaseb, Kukame’s defence counsel, Ivo dos Santos, also handed to the court a pre-trial statement setting out Kukame’s expected pleas to the three charges that he faces.Kukame will plead not guilty to all charges, and will not be making any admissions, it is indicated in the statement.Kukame (27) was arrested on February 10 2005, following the discovery of the body of a three-and-a-half-year-old girl, Manuela Sofia //Hoesemas, at the disused Katutura Cinema Hall in Windhoek.It is alleged that Kukame had been posted at the Cinema Hall as a security guard in the period between February 7 and 10 2005, when //Hoesemas went missing from a house where her grandmother and aunt lived next to the hall.In the indictment setting out the counts of murder, rape and abduction, alternatively kidnapping, that Kukame is set to face, it is alleged that at some time during the three days that //Hoesemas was missing, Kukame had invited her to go with him to the Cinema Hall.There he took her into a generator and ventilator room, where he raped and sodomised her, injuring her seriously, it is charged.He murdered her by stuffing her panties into her mouth and strangling her with his hands or her jersey, which he tied around her neck, it is also alleged in the indictment.Kukame was sent for psychiatric observation soon after his arrest.By mid-April 2005 a State psychiatrist reported back to the Windhoek Magistrate’s Court that Kukame was found to have been sane at the time of his alleged crimes, and that he could be held accountable for his alleged deeds.The trial dates that have been fixed are from September 24 to October 5, Deputy Prosecutor General Antonia Verhoef informed the Judge President during yesterday’s proceedings.Kukame remains in custody.