Suspect admits rape, murder of Gobabis teen

MURDER: Guilty
Rape: Guilty.
Abduction: Guilty.
With these pleas from unemployed Gobabis resident Stanley Ganeb, the trial on the alleged abduction, rape and murder of a 16-year-old girl at the Omaheke Region town a little over two years ago started in the High Court in Windhoek yesterday.

The body of Mina Goeieman (16) was found lying in an open patch of veld at the Freedom Square area of Gobabis around daybreak on June 7 2007. She had injuries to her head, and she was found partly naked. Her underwear lay a couple of metres from her body.Appearing in the dock in the High Court before Judge Sylvester Mainga yesterday, Ganeb (24), who was arrested on the same day that Goeieman had been found dead, pleaded guilty to all three charges that he is facing at his trial.In a plea explanation that Ganeb’s defence lawyer, Sackey Akweenda, handed to the Judge, Ganeb admitted that he killed Goeieman by repeatedly hitting her with a brick on her head.In one part of his plea explanation he stated that when he hit Goeieman with the brick, it was his intention to kill her. In another part of the statement, he declared that he could foresee the possibility that she might die as a result of his attack on her.That second claim appears to indicate that Ganeb is not admitting that he had a direct intention to kill Goeieman, State advocate Ruben Shileka told Judge Mainga when he informed the court that the prosecution was not willing to accept Ganeb’s plea on the murder charge.The State accepted the pleas on the rape and abduction charges, though, Shileka said.In the rest of his plea explanation, Ganeb admitted that he knew that Goeieman was a minor, that he threatened her with physical force and had intercourse with her without her consent, and that he removed her from the control of her mother in order to have intercourse with her.In a report on an autopsy that was done on Goeieman’s remains, asphyxia due to strangulation was stated as the cause of her death.Ganeb is however disputing an allegation that he had also strangled Goeieman, Akweenda told the court. Ganeb is only admitting that he killed Goeieman by hitting her with a brick, Akweenda said.The first witness to testify in the trial, Detective Sergeant Daniel Pietersen, told the Judge that when he saw Goeieman’s body at the scene where she was found dead, he could see that the left side of her face and head was swollen, and also observed what appeared to be scratch marks on her neck on both sides of her throat.Goeieman was not wearing underwear, and panties were found lying about five metres from her body, Pietersen related. He said he also saw a packet of condoms lying next to her.When he arrested Ganeb, also known to him as ‘Jakkals’, later that day, he saw some blood spots on a long-sleeved T-shirt and a short-sleeved T-shirt that Ganeb was wearing, Pietersen testified. He said Ganeb admitted to him that he had killed Goeieman by hitting her on the head several times, and never mentioned having also strangled her. Ganeb at first denied having raped her, but later also admitted this, Pietersen said.Ganeb made a statement before a Police Inspector on the afternoon of the day of his arrest. In that statement, he claimed he and Goeieman had a relationship and that he had found her in the company of another man during the early morning hours of that day.He claimed that she told him that she was ending their relationship, but that he could have intercourse with her for a last time, he told the Inspector.After that, however, she angered him and he picked up a brick and started beating her with it, Ganeb stated. He said she fell down after he had struck her a first time. When she got up again, he again beat her and she fell to the ground once more. He then moved closer to her and again beat her on the head with the brick, he said.’She was for a while unconscious but later she start to talk, and I asked her to stand up so that we could go home, but (she) don’t stand up. I left her behind and went home,’ Ganeb said.Ganeb had been released from prison, where he had been kept for a month, on the day before Goeieman was killed, Akweenda remarked when he questioned Pietersen. According to Ganeb, Goeieman had been his girlfriend before he was locked up, but he then found her with another man after his release, Akweenda said.He investigated Ganeb’s claim that he and Goeieman had a relationship, but he could not find any confirmation for that, Pietersen said.The trial is continuing today.Ganeb is being kept in custody.