Hertta-Maria Amutenja
An alleged serial rapist won a partial victory after a Windhoek High court Judge, Dinah Usiku acquitted him on four out of the 23 charges he is facing.
Gavin Gawanab is charged with three counts of rape, three counts of attempted rape, four charges of attempted murder and several counts of assault as well as assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm, alternatively indecent assault, kidnapping, housebreaking with intent to rape and rape as well as crimen injuria.
However, Gawanab has consistently denied the charges since the start of his trial.
Gawanab was arrested in November 2018 in Katutura’s Havana location following a police manhunt, a string of pending rape and attempted rape cases including the rape and mutilation of a 10-year-old girl in 2018.
He is accused of attempted murder after allegedly strangling the minor girl with intent to murder her, assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and a further count of rape of the same victim.
At the end of the State’s case, his legal aid instructed lawyer Mbanga Siyomunji brought an application for dismissal of 12 of the charges he faces including the rape and mutilation of a then 10-year-old girl.
Siyomunji asked the court to dismiss Gawanab on two rape counts, one count of housebreaking with intent to rape and rape, three counts of attempted murder, four counts of assault, one count of robbery and one count of attempted rape.
In his arguments supporting his application, Siyomunji argued that none of the charges were proved by the State beyond a reasonable doubt and that his client is entitled to the benefit of the doubt.
He contended that the victim’s statements did not make reference to the alleged tattoos, and therefore could not tally with the evidence presented. He also said that the lack of his DNA on the clothes or the person of the 10-year-old victim exonerates the accused. During the trial the State has led the evidence of several witnesses who were minor children. Evidence of the minor children are that the person who attacked and violated them had tattoos amongst other features. They made reference to having been attacked by a brown male person who had tattoos on his arms and legs.
Judge Usiku, however, found that several witnesses identified the accused, as he was known to them, as the person who met the victim and dragged her away from her friends.
Furthermore, she stated, the accumulated evidence showing injuries and violence on her shows that she was the victim of a vicious attack and disproves the accused’s version that he did not meet the victim on that fateful day.
With regards to the other charges, she said that Gawanab was positively identified as the culprit by several witnesses and he has a case to answer for.
However, she said on the charges of assault where it is alleged that he stabbed two women with an arrow and robbed them of cash, rape one of them and tried to rape another, it was not established beyond a reasonable doubt that he was prima facie liable.
She added that no evidence was presented to put the accused on his defence. According to her, the complainants were intoxicated and could not recall the events in clarity, which puts doubts on their evidence and as such she has no choice, but to afford him the benefit of doubt.
His crime spree of allegedly sexually assaulting under-aged girls started in December 2012 until he was arrested in November 2018 after he allegedly raped a 10-year-old girl and cut open her genitals.
He was on bail on the previous charges when he pounced on his last victim to cases that date back to when Gawanab was still a minor.
