[WATCH] Pangaker guilty! ‘Make an example of him, fix the justice system’
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PREYED ON LITTLE GIRLS: Killer and rapist Mohydian Pangaker. Picture: Phando Jikelo/African News Agency (ANA)
“Child killer Mohydian Pangaker is a sexual predator with a high sex drive who preyed on little girls.”
These were the words of Judge Alan Maher as he found Pangaker guilty of the murder of little Tazne van Wyk at the Western Cape High Court on Wednesday.
Pangaker was found guilty on 21 of the 27 charges against him, which include murder, rape, kidnap and incest.
After delivering his three-day judgement following the protracted trial, Maher said Tazne’s death was the catalyst which led to several child victims coming forward, revealing the vicious sex attacks they suffered at Pangaker’s hands.
In February 2020, Pangaker, 57, was fingered as the man who snatched the eight-year-old meisie from her home in Ravensmead.
Tazne was later found murdered and dumped in a stormwater drain in Worcester.
In his judgement, Maher said the State relied on circumstantial evidence to prove that he kidnapped, raped, murdered and desecrated Tazne’s corpse by cutting off her hand.
He said Pangaker’s claims that his DNA was found under her nails because he tried to save her from kidnappers was proven false, when under cross-examination he admitted his hands were tied behind his back.
“He clearly knew where she was and pointed out her body to the SAPS on the night of his arrest,” said Maher.
“The obvious conclusion is that he knew Tazne was dead because he was the killer.”
Maher described Pangaker’s version of events as “fantastical” and “implausible”, and added that it is likely he lured the little girl into the taxi by claiming her mother was in Beaufort West.
“The only person that could have killed Tazne is the accused,” he said.
“The only purpose for kidnapping an eight-year-old girl is sexual gratification. The accused raped Tazne van Wyk.”
He said the DNA evidence which linked Pangaker to the crime scene showed that Tazne “had spoken from the grave”.
During the trial, shocking testimonies by young girls related to Pangaker were heard, and he was found guilty of raping his own daughter and granddaughter, and even trying to convince his niece to have sex with him for R200.
Maher rejected Pangaker’s version that he was a victim of sexual assault by his daughter, leading to the incestuous relationship, and said it was “improbable”.
He further said the daughter, who Pangaker had impregnated, was frail and could not have forcefully removed the clothes of a man with the physique of Mohydian, who had been employed as a bouncer.
Maher said: “The relationship was not because of an insatiable attraction to her father… at some point she gave up and resigned herself to her father to prevent her daughter from being raped.”
The judge added that Pangaker destroyed his daughter and she was nothing but a sexual object to him.
In his admissions, Pangaker confirmed he was the biological father of his daughter’s baby boy but when testifying, he claimed he did not know incest was illegal.
Turning to the granddaughter’s testimony, Maher said while there were contradictions, she appeared “a downtrodden and broken person” who was truthful in her accounts.
He said the traumatised child did not appear to be fabricating stories as intimated by Pangaker when he testified in his own defence.
In finding him guilty, Maher said Pangaker was a sex predator who preyed on little girls.
The matter was postponed to January 16 for sentencing.
Speaking outside court, Tazne’s mom Carmen said examples need to be made of men like Pangaker.
“I can’t say I am happy [about the judgement] as nothing will bring her back.
“We only wanted justice to be served,” she explained.
“It was very frustrating but we needed to be here, even though we know it’s all lies [his testimony]. We are coping by the grace of God.”
“The actual fact is that there is something that must be done about the system because these types of things happen for years and years.
“Like he is one of the people coming out on parole. Something needs to change, I think there needs to be an example.”