Judgement day has arrived for alleged child killer and molester Mohydian Pangaker, who returned to the Western Cape High Court on Monday to hear his fate.
Judge Alan Maher started delivering his much-anticipated judgement as the vicious and violent sex attacks on Pangaker’s own family took centre stage.
Pangaker, 57, made headlines in February 2020 after he was fingered as the man who snatched eight-year-old Tazne van Wyk from her home in Ravensmead.
Tazne was later found murdered and dumped in a stormwater drain in Worcester.
Pangaker went on trial for her murder this year, but shocking details emerged in court documents as the State charged him with multiple rapes of children in his own family, as well as incest charges for fathering a child with his own daughter.
If found guilty, Pangaker faces multiple life sentences as Judge Maher will rule on whether or not there is enough evidence to convict him of murder, a total of 12 rape charges, two counts of kidnapping, three counts of sexual assault, and charges of grooming and sexually exploiting children.
He has pleaded not guilty to all 27 charges.
In evaluating the evidence, Maher said the State called 37 witnesses, while most relatives opted to testify in camera.
Pangaker’s first sex attack on record happened 28 years ago, involving his niece, who was 13 years old at the time.
Central to the case is the charge of incest where Mohydian, in his admissions, confirmed that he fathered a son with his biological daughter.
On Monday, Maher aired the entire testimony of the daughter, who said that after moving to Ladismith with her mother – who introduced Mohydian as her father – she was raped in a bush.
Maher explained that the young woman, who suffers from epilepsy and is prone to seizures, testified that one night she went to the club where Mohydian worked as a bouncer and got dronk.
She told the court that on their way home he dragged her to a bush, took off her pants and raped her.
The next morning she was confused when Mohydian asked her “if she enjoyed it”.
She further stated that she had witnessed him beating her two younger brothers and he also threatened that if she did not agree to have sex with him, he would rape her nine-year-old daughter.
“She said she had to have sex every day, under duress. She referred to his sex drive as aggressive and he wanted sex daily [and]if she refused there would be fights and he would take it out on the children,” Maher said.
Her brothers from Hanover Park recounted violent attacks where they were beaten with pipes, planks and belts until they ran away and got help from Ladismith police.
The daughter also revealed that days before Tazne went missing, they had visited a boarder on the same property where the child was introduced to Pangaker.
Despite his claims that he never knew Tazne, his daughter testified that the child had sat on his lap.
Maher said that Pangaker’s nine-year-old granddaughter testified that he had taken her to various places in Ladismith where he raped her.
The terrified girl said she kept quiet as he threatened to kill her, but when Mohydian appeared on TV after he was busted for Tazne’s murder, she told an aunt in Worcester and a case was opened.
The court also heard the summarised testimonies of six relatives, including an Elsies River meisie who said Mohydian offered her R200 to have sex with him but she refused, and he was then banned from the family house.
The judgement continues.