MAN SENTENCED TO TWO LIFE TERMS PLUS 10 YEARS FOR RAPE AND MURDER
The High Court of South Africa, Eastern Cape Division, sitting in Gqeberha, sentenced Ricardo Gysman (25), to two life imprisonment terms for the rape and murder of a five-year-old girl. The court sentenced Gysman to ten years for another rape of a 50-year-old woman. It ordered the sentences to run concurrently with one life imprisonment term.
On the evening of 10 November 2018, the adult victim was on her way to visit her friend who resided near her home in Brakkenfontein Informal Settlement, on Rocklands Road in the district of Gqeberha. She walked a short distance beyond Gysman’s house, and she heard somebody running from behind her. Gysman grabbed her and pushed her onto the ground threatening to kill her with a knife if she screamed and raped her.
After her ordeal, she remained still on the ground and only left after she thought that the Gysman had fallen asleep in his shack, and she walked home without her pants and her undergarments on. She slept, as it was late and reported the matter to her friend the following morning and later to the police, leading to the arrest of Gysman, who was linked to the crime through DNA.
While Gysman was out on bail, on the night of 02 August 2019, a five-year-old girl went missing, after she had been left sleeping at her home at Withoogter Informal Settlement, in the same area as where Gysman committed the first rape. The toddler had been left with her nine-year-old cousin by her mother, who was visiting a friend. Her lifeless body was discovered inside a toilet the following day. The community members soon suspected Gysman, because he had been in the same house as the deceased the previous night. Police were summoned and he was arrested.
Even though Gysman was also linked through DNA to the two rapes and murder of the five-year-old, he maintained he was innocent, but the Judge found that he constantly adapted his version of events during cross-cross-examination by Advocate Ismat Cerfontein.
Eastern Cape Director of Public Prosecutions, Barry Madolo, welcomed the sentence and commended that prosecutor, investigating officer and the state witnesses.
