Pervert pleads guilty

IT was a crime that shocked not only Swakopmund, but the whole of Namibia, to the core: a six-year-old girl, led from her home at night, to be raped and to die a gruesome death only half a kilometre from the safety of her father’s flat.

Yesterday, the man accused of perpetrating such a depraved deed, Willem Cornelias Louw, pleaded guilty in the High Court in Windhoek to charges of rape, murder and kidnapping. He admitted that on the evening of January 31 last year, after a day of drinking got him fired from his job as a security guard, he walked Rachel Hamatundu, a six-year-old Grade 1 pupil at a Swakopmund school, to the town’s sewage works about 500 metres from the flats where they both lived.He admitted that there, he raped her.Twice.He admitted that she cried when he did this for the first time.He admitted that he then raped her a second time.He admitted that, after these acts of depravity, he decided to kill her – because he did not want her to tell anyone what he had just done to her.He admitted that he took her by her legs and smashed her head against a concrete pillar.That killed her.And then, he admitted, he went drinking again.Only to return to the scene later.And after returning to witness his handiwork, he admitted, he went home to sleep.EMOTIONALLouw (32) appeared to be swallowing hard, closing his eyes tightly, a couple of times as Deputy Prosecutor General Antonia Verhoef approached the end of reading out the four charges against him before he pleaded.They are counts of murder, rape, abduction, alternatively kidnapping, and, again, rape.When Judge Sylvester Mainga asked him what his plea was to the charges, he appeared to be wiping tears from his eyes as he answered the Judge, on each of the first two counts, in Afrikaans: “My Lord, ek pleit skuldig.”(“My Lord, I plead guilty.”) His defence counsel, Louis Karsten, confirmed the pleas, and read a written plea explanation, which Louw had signed, to the court.In it – as in a confession that he made to a Magistrate at Walvis Bay on February 4 last year and in initial guilty pleas in the Swakopmund Magistrate’s Court on February 14 last year – Louw may have given a hint of what event planted the seed that grew into the perverted events of that evening.Early on the afternoon of January 31 2005, he was sitting outside the flat where he was staying in Tamariskia, Swakopmund, drinking a beer, he related in all three statements.He saw Hamatundu playing with other children.He spent the rest of the day drinking at various places, before he went off to work that evening.Because he was under the influence, his employer dismissed him on the spot from his job as a security guard.He returned home, he related.There, he stated in his plea explanation, he saw Hamatundu still playing outside.That was about 20h00.She came to him and asked him to buy her some chips at a nearby service station, he stated.He told her that he did not have money to buy chips for her, he said.He walked off, and she walked with him, he stated.They went to the Swakopmund sewage works – which Louw referred to as the municipal reservoir.”At the municipal reservoir I told the deceased to lie down and I pulled down her panties.As I had sexual intercourse with the deceased she was crying.SEWAGE WORKS”I then took the deceased over the wall at the municipal reservoir where I had further sexual intercourse with her,” his plea explanation reads.It continues: “After I had sexual intercourse with the deceased, I was afraid that she might tell somebody what I have done to her.I then took the deceased by her legs and I hit her head against the pillar.”After I made sure that the deceased was dead, I departed from the scene.I went home in order to change my clothes.After I changed my clothes I first went to the bottle store again where I consumed alcohol.”Thereafter I went back to the scene and I found the body of the deceased still at the scene where I left her.”At about 03h00 I went back to my flat in order to sleep.”Verhoef handed both the confession and the record of Louw’s plea to the court as exhibits in the trial, without any objections from Louw or his lawyer.The brutality of the murder had been portrayed even more nakedly in his plea in the Magistrate’s Court.There, after he had told the court how he had raped the child by force, Louw had stated: “I then took her legs with my hands and hit her against a pillar.I hit her against the pillar at least four times.”She then died and I moved away from the scene.She died as a result of the assault.She suffocated in her blood.”There was blood coming from her nose and mouth and forehead.”I beat her forehead against the pillar.I then left the dead body there and moved on.”In his confession, when asked why he wanted to make a statement, he said: “I have remorse about what I did and want to feel free.”Also part of the evidence before the court are photographs showing the scene as the Police found it on February 1 last year.Hamatundu was found almost naked, lying on her back, her legs spread apart.She was covered in sand.Someone must have taken the trouble of scraping sand together and covering her face, upper body, and private parts with it.Only after she had been cleaned during the autopsy, could it be seen how her little face had been disfigured.The trial continues tomorrow.He admitted that on the evening of January 31 last year, after a day of drinking got him fired from his job as a security guard, he walked Rachel Hamatundu, a six-year-old Grade 1 pupil at a Swakopmund school, to the town’s sewage works about 500 metres from the flats where they both lived.He admitted that there, he raped her.Twice.He admitted that she cried when he did this for the first time.He admitted that he then raped her a second time.He admitted that, after these acts of depravity, he decided to kill her – because he did not want her to tell anyone what he had just done to her.He admitted that he took her by her legs and smashed her head against a concrete pillar.That killed her.And then, he admitted, he went drinking again.Only to return to the scene later.And after returning to witness his handiwork, he admitted, he went home to sleep.EMOTIONAL Louw (32) appeared to be swallowing hard, closing his eyes tightly, a couple of times as Deputy Prosecutor General Antonia Verhoef approached the end of reading out the four charges against him before he pleaded.They are counts of murder, rape, abduction, alternatively kidnapping, and, again, rape.When Judge Sylvester Mainga asked him what his plea was to the charges, he appeared to be wiping tears from his eyes as he answered the Judge, on each of the first two counts, in Afrikaans: “My Lord, ek pleit skuldig.”(“My Lord, I plead guilty.”) His defence counsel, Louis Karsten, confirmed the pleas, and read a written plea explanation, which Louw had signed, to the court.In it – as in a confession that he made to a Magistrate at Walvis Bay on February 4 last year and in initial guilty pleas in the Swakopmund Magistrate’s Court on February 14 last year – Louw may have given a hint of what event planted the seed that grew into the perverted events of that evening.Early on the afternoon of January 31 2005, he was sitting outside the flat where he was staying in Tamariskia, Swakopmund, drinking a beer, he related in all three statements.He saw Hamatundu playing with other children.He spent the rest of the day drinking at various places, before he went off to work that evening.Because he was under the influence, his employer dismissed him on the spot from his job as a security guard.He returned home, he related.There, he stated in his plea explanation, he saw Hamatundu still playing outside.That was about 20h00.She came to him and asked him to buy her some chips at a nearby service station, he stated.He told her that he did not have money to buy chips for her, he said.He walked off, and she walked with him, he stated.They went to the Swakopmund sewage works – which Louw referred to as the municipal reservoir.”At the municipal reservoir I told the deceased to lie down and I pulled down her panties.As I had sexual intercourse wit
h the deceased she was crying. SEWAGE WORKS “I then took the deceased over the wall at the municipal reservoir where I had further sexual intercourse with her,” his plea explanation reads.It continues: “After I had sexual intercourse with the deceased, I was afraid that she might tell somebody what I have done to her.I then took the deceased by her legs and I hit her head against the pillar.”After I made sure that the deceased was dead, I departed from the scene.I went home in order to change my clothes.After I changed my clothes I first went to the bottle store again where I consumed alcohol.”Thereafter I went back to the scene and I found the body of the deceased still at the scene where I left her.”At about 03h00 I went back to my flat in order to sleep.”Verhoef handed both the confession and the record of Louw’s plea to the court as exhibits in the trial, without any objections from Louw or his lawyer.The brutality of the murder had been portrayed even more nakedly in his plea in the Magistrate’s Court.There, after he had told the court how he had raped the child by force, Louw had stated: “I then took her legs with my hands and hit her against a pillar.I hit her against the pillar at least four times.”She then died and I moved away from the scene.She died as a result of the assault.She suffocated in her blood.”There was blood coming from her nose and mouth and forehead.”I beat her forehead against the pillar.I then left the dead body there and moved on.”In his confession, when asked why he wanted to make a statement, he said: “I have remorse about what I did and want to feel free.”Also part of the evidence before the court are photographs showing the scene as the Police found it on February 1 last year.Hamatundu was found almost naked, lying on her back, her legs spread apart.She was covered in sand.Someone must have taken the trouble of scraping sand together and covering her face, upper body, and private parts with it.Only after she had been cleaned during the autopsy, could it be seen how her little face had been disfigured.The trial continues tomorrow.