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| JAILED: Sunday Rapist Johannes Jacobus Steyn. Photo: ALON SKUY |
A South African man who abducted and raped girls on Sundays has been convicted of murder and rape and sentenced to five terms in prison.
Johannes Jacobus Steyn was found guilty on 33 charges, including murder, in the high court sitting in Alberton on the East Rand yesterday. Judge Sita Kolbe found him guilty on all but four of the 37 charges brought against him. The charges included rape, sexual assault, kidnapping and attempted sexual assault.
Abductions took place between 2008 and 2011, and the girls were aged between 11 and 18.
Earlier today, the court was told that Steyn is a psychopath.
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| FAMILY: The mother and sister (on left) of murder victim Louise de Waal (17) at court. Photo: ALON SKUY |
Clinical psychologist Francois Visser said he believed Steyn lacked remorse and empathy, had poor self-control, and was a pathological liar who lived in a fantasy world.
“He has no regard for others... He is selfish and self-centred,” said Visser.
“He also accepts no responsibility for his actions.”
Visser said he believed Steyn was not only a danger to society, but also a danger to his wife.
He told the court that in his experience as a psychologist, he had never heard of a rehabilitated psychopath.
Steyn had refused to meet with the psychologist. Therefore, Visser’s report was compiled through information and documents from the police.
A woman who had an extra-marital affair with Steyn, testified that he had started writing a book on his life since his arrest.
She said he hoped to get rich once it was published.
The woman, who cannot be named, read portions of a 23-page letter she had received from him in March while he was in custody.
In the letter, Steyn said he had engaged in oral sex with 17-year-old teenager Louise de Waal as they drove to his house.
“It wasn’t her first,” he claimed.
The packed courtroom gasped as they heard the details.
Louise’s mother, Shireen de Waal, cried as she lay on the shoulder of a comforter.
Throughout the letter, Steyn referred to parts of the Bible, quoting scriptures of him being a “new creation”.
He said there was a demon living in him.
The court also heard that Louise de Waal was not Steyn’s initial target on the day she was murdered.
In his letter, Steyn claimed that De Waal was too old. His target had been girls between 12 and 14 years who were wearing a “short skirt and had nice legs”.
He said he was distracted and therefore settled for De Waal.
Steyn’s former lover said the man who surfaced in the letter was not the man she had known.
“I realised the person I knew before the arrest was a lie... He was a very happy-go-lucky man, a gentleman who was always willing to help, respectful and religious...,” she said.
De Waal’s mother said she wished him a billion times more suffering than she experienced.
Looking in Steyn’s direction, Shireen said she wished he never found peace.
“May you never find peace and forgiveness in the Bible you carry to court...
“I take pleasure in knowing you’ll never know your son.
“I’ll miss my daughter’s Matric dance, 18th and 21st birthday, her wedding and first baby but my daughter is dead, your son is alive.”
It was not the first time Steyn had been in trouble with the law because of sexual offences.
It was revealed that during some of his attacks, which took place on Sundays, he was supposed to be performing community service.
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