Alleged child rapist and killer Mohydian Pangaker will know his fate next month as the murder trial of slain Tazne van Wyk was concluded yesterday at the Western Cape HIgh Court.
After months of testimonies and cross examinations, defence advocate Saleem Halday continued to advocate for Pangaker’s innocence saying the State did not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he raped and killed eight-year-old Tazne and should therefore be acquitted.
In his closing arguments, Halday said Pangaker had told the court who was responsible for her death, namely the four unknown kidnappers, and said that he did not tell anyone who called him during the search for the missing girl about this as he feared he would be blamed.
The Grade 3 pupil from Eurecon Primary School went missing on 7 February 2020 when she was snatched metres from her home in Clare Street.
During the search for Tazne, Pangaker’s relatives told cops that he had also disappeared and cops went on the hunt for him.
He was nabbed in Cradock in the Eastern Cape and on their way back to Cape Town he told cops where to find the child’s body in a stormwater drain in Worcester.
Her one hand was missing.
Halday shocked the court when he insinuated that the damage to Tazne’s pelvic bones could have been caused before she went missing, saying the State did not prove that she was raped by Pangaker.
“The State, we submit, did not produce sufficient evidence in relation to the rape charge and the violating of a corpse charge to sustain a conviction.
“The body was left from the 7th to the 19th February 2020 before being discovered. Anything could have happened during this time.
“No sharp object capable of cutting off a hand was found in the possession of the accused.
“I would also submit that in the absence of any record that these injuries did not occur before 7 February.”
During the trial it was revealed that Tazne’s corpse was too decayed to obtain DNA from her pelvic area.
However anthropology expert Dr Jacqui Friedling testified that Tazne’s pelvic bones revealed that she had been penetrated and would have been in extreme pain had she been alive at the time of penetration.
Video footage shown during the trial also showed that on the night Tazne left the garage with Pangaker, she appeared to have no problems walking, bringing Halday’s statement into question.
The case was postponed to 4 October where judgement will be delivered.