There was no love for child rapist and killer Mohydian Pangaker at the Western Cape High Court on Tuesday, where he was sentenced to over 250 years in the mang for his heinous crimes.
Loud cheers could be heard inside the court when the child predator was sentenced by judge Alan Maher, who called him a “callous killer with a dark heart”.
After a lengthy trial, the man found guilty of the brutal rape and murder of eight-year-old Tazne van Wyk will finally pay for his crimes after he was handed nine life sentences for various charges which include eight counts of rape of children, sexual assault, sexual exploitation of children, several counts of assault on a child, kidnapping, incest, desecration of a corpse and absconding from parole.
Pangaker, 57, came under the spotlight in February 2020 after he was accused of being the man who snatched the little girl from her home in Ravensmead.
Tazne was later found murdered and dumped in a stormwater drain in Worcester.
Pangaker went on trial for Tazne’s rape and murder last year, but shocking details emerged in court documents as the State also charged him with the multiple rapes of children in his own family, as well as rape and incest charges for fathering a child with his own daughter.
He was found guilty on 21 of the 27 charges brought against him.
Judge Maher did not mince his words as he slammed Pangaker as a callous killer who preyed on young meisies to fulfil his sexual desires.
Commenting on the murder of Tazne, the judge told the court that the CCTV footage captured at a local garage in Worcester showed that the child had trusted Pangaker and had no idea that she was in the hands of a monster.
“The video footage is chilling to watch. Tazne is completely relaxed and she comes across as nonchalant. She shows no fear of the accused. Such was her innocence,” Maher said.
He further told the court that Pangaker had a “dark heart” and would not be deterred by his plan to rape Tazne despite being aware of her parents’ distress.
“Every murder is serious but the brutal and senseless murder of an eight-year-old girl late at night, away from her family, must have been horrible and painful.
“The accused has a heart of darkness and the actions of the accused is proof thereof.”
Pangaker was found guilty on seven rape charges linked to his daughter and granddaughter and was also convicted on a string of sexual assault charges relating to young girls in his own family.
Maher said the rapist abused his position of authority and preyed on the young and did not even spare his relatives.
He said Pangaker deflowered his own daughter and failed as a father to fulfil his primary role in protecting the women in his family, and was instead their attacker.
During the trial, shocking testimonies by girls related to Pangaker were heard, including of him trying to convince his niece to have sex with him for R200.
Maher said Pangaker was intimidating and his presence menacing and while some of his relatives testified in camera, one person suffered a seizure while testifying.
The judge slapped Pangaker with a combined sentence of over 250 years which include nine life sentences amounting to 225 years.
The sentences will run concurrently and he will serve an effective 25 years in prison and has been entered into the National Sex Offenders Registry.
Outside court, Tazne’s relieved parents said their daughter could finally rest in peace, as they held their new baby Tamia, who was born in December.
Dad Terence Manuel said they can finally begin healing.
“I am glad that [those] people also got justice for what he had done to them,” he added.
“And today my daughter, she can rest in peace now and I hope we will work from there.”
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