Civil group Action Society has asked mense to come out in their numbers at the next court appearance of an alleged serial abuser.
Ryan Rhode has been charged with attempted murder, kidnapping, aggravated assault with intent to cause bodily harm, pointing of firearm, rape and damage to property.
It is alleged he assaulted his ex-girlfriend so badly that she needed a steel arm plate put in.
The 28-year-old woman from Mitchells Plain also claims that he burnt her with a soldering iron.
After her case was almost struck off the role, Janelle Laattoe says she can breathe easy as the wheels of justice are finally turning.
Janelle, who was in a three-and-a-half year relationship with Rhode, recalls how she scrambled to safety after he allegedly beat her with his bare hands.
The victim tells the Daily Voice that the abuse she experienced in 2019 gradually started getting worse.
“He wasn’t abusive at first, this only started in the last six months of us being together,” she said.
“We would argue and he would test to see how far he could go by beating me, by twisting my arm or hitting his fist on my leg.
“He would never hit me in my face,” Janelle added.
While she believed that the small nudges were something that would stop, she claims Rhode saw it as a sign that she wasn’t standing up for herself, so the abuse got worse.
“Then the slapping started and the punching. He even broke my arm with his hands and burnt me with a soldering iron.
“By this time I was afraid to leave because he threatened to kill me.
“Eventually when I did leave, he called me after a month and said he would like to talk, that is the day he dragged me out of the car and beat me; it’s also the day I decided to open a case against him,” Janelle explained.
However, she added, the case kept getting postponed, and then the Covid-19 hit in 2020.
“He pleaded guilty but I wasn’t happy with the suspended sentence, so he was released on bail while the case was provisionally withdrawn,” Janelle said.
But, two years later, Rhode would again find himself in court where two more women opened abuse related cases against him.
The second woman who Rhode allegedly assaulted was beaten to the extent that she was in and out of consciousness and suffered severe injuries to her face and arm.
The third woman was assaulted and threatened in 2021.
Janelle was contacted by the women and also returned to court, but she was then told that her docket was missing.
But with the help of Action Society, they managed to get the case back on track.
"To think he went out on a rampage while out on bail was scary to hear,” she said.
Action Society spokesperson Kaylynn Palm has asked people to come out in their numbers to support Janelle at the Blue Downs Magistrate’s Court on September 29.