Mariental strangler guilty of murder, rape

A MARIENTAL man who was accused of having carried out several attacks on young women at the Hardap town was found guilty on six charges – including counts of murder, rape and attempted murder – in the Windhoek High Court yesterday.

Having been convicted on six of the seven charges on which he was tried, Hendrik Atab Swartz (32) is scheduled to be sentenced by judge Dinnah Usiku in the High Court at Windhoek Correctional Facility on 30 April.

Swartz should be sentenced to life imprisonment on the murder charge on which he was found guilty; 15 years in prison on each of two counts of attempted murder and a charge of rape, and to two-year jail terms on further charges of assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm and crimen injuria, state advocate Marthino Olivier proposed when he addressed the judge after the delivery of her judgement.

Swartz’ defence lawyer, Gert Appolus, conceded that Swartz had been convicted of serious crimes. He asked the judge to extend “some degree of mercy and leniency” to Swartz and to order that the sentences given to him on the six charges should run concurrently.

Swartz admitted at the start of his trial in October last year that he murdered a 16-year-old girl, Estonovia Games, at Mariental during the early morning hours of 20 October 2016.

He informed the court in a plea statement that he approached Games from behind and attacked her when he found her walking alone, and that he strangled her by putting his arm around her neck and applying force.

Although he admitted to two state witnesses after his arrest that he had raped Games as well, during his trial, Swartz denied that he had carried out a sexual attack on her.

Judge Usiku convicted him of murder committed with a direct intent to kill, but, in the absence of evidence corroborating the admissions he made to the two state witnesses, acquitted him of rape.

Swartz was also found guilty of rape and attempted murder over an attack on a 12-year-old girl at Mariental on 25 March 2016. The girl who was attacked in that incident told the court that Swartz grabbed her from behind, dragged her away and strangled her until she lost consciousness. She also said he tried to rape her.

The girl’s mother and another witness found Swartz at the scene where the girl lay unconscious and half-naked before Swartz fled.

The first attack that Swartz was found to have carried out took place on 1 May 2013 at Mariental. In that incident, Swartz threatened a 19-year-old woman and two of her friends with a knife and tried to stab one of the woman’s friends.

When the group of three scattered in different directions, Swartz followed the young woman, caught up with her, and dragged her away after he had inflicted a cut to her forehead with his knife.

He then took her to the house where he lived. The woman told the court that at the house Swartz strangled her and put a piece of cloth into her mouth before she lost consciousness. A neighbour of Swartz found the woman naked, bleeding and unable to speak in his house later that night. The woman had to be carried out of the house, and once outside it was discovered that a T-shirt had been stuffed into her mouth.

Although the woman was found naked, there was no evidence that she had been raped, judge Usiku noted. However, the fact that she had been left naked and her dignity had been injured proved that Swartz was guilty of crimen injuria instead of rape, the judge found.

Swartz has been kept in custody since his arrest near the end of October.

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