Convicts continuing to commit crimes from behind bars is nothing new. But somebody needs to explain to me how a prisoner is able to operate an elaborate, and very public scam from inside the.
Facebook rapist Thabo Bester is one of the most ballsy criminal masterminds I have heard of in a very long time.
This is a man for whom prison rehabilitation is another joke to add to the jokes that he made of his many victims.
So brazen is this man, that he took his criminal ambitions global, involving the names of some of the best-known international brands, including 20th Century Fox, billionaire Patrice Motsepe and Hollywood A-listers Halle Berry and Taraji P Henson.
In fact, with multiple false identities, a fake-death prison break and a luxurious lifestyle facilitated by a celebrity doctor with a taste for the finer things in life, Bester’s ongoing criminal escapades reads like a Hollywood thriller.
This despite the fact that he is supposed to be serving a life sentence for rape and murdering his girlfriend here in Cape Town in 2011.
Since then, his charge sheet has grown exponentially, as it was found that he was running a media and production company from behind bars.
Using the name Tom Motsepe, it still confounds me how he was able to openly claim being related to Patrice Motsepe while organising a glitzy “Women in Media” event at the very posh Hilton Hotel in Sandton.
He was basically taunting the very media people who had participated in his capture.
It takes big, brass cojones to pull off something like that, especially from prison.
There are tons of unanswered questions.
It’s a fascinating story. And if it wasn’t for the raping and murdering, I could almost admire him for the cavalier confidence with which he commits one crime after another.
Now he’s on the run again. And he’s actions are just a further indictment on our near-farcical justice system that gives criminals a licence to do as they please.