Rheenendal murder: Horrific details emerge in court

01 Feb 2016 | Admin Author

Horrific details about little Rosaline Philander's last moments were revealed in the Circuit High Court in Knysna this week.
According to witnesses the nine-year-old girl - who was brutally raped and stabbed in Rheenendal in August last year - suffered very severe injuries and that she could have lived for 15 minutes after the wounds were inflicted, before bleeding out.

Ewald Booysen, a 32-year-old Rheenendal resident - was arrested after her body was discovered in a wooded area in Rheenendal on August 31.
According to police the girl had wounds on her neck, but forensic tests later revealed that she had also been raped.

Witnesses said Rosaline had been playing with friends in Gousblom Street when she was allegedly approached by Booysen who lured her away with a promise of fish and chips at a nearby shop.

Residents later spotted Booysen without the young girl.

Booysen pleaded not guilty on all three charges against him - rape, murder and kidnapping - and in his plea explanation admitted that he had approached Rosaline, but that she "out of her own free will" followed him. He further admitted that he had been under heavy influence of alcohol and when the little girl complained about his drinking and told him that she wanted to go home, he strangled her until her "arms went limp" and left her there next to a river.
He denied stabbing her or raping her and said when he left her, he did not know whether she was still alive or just unconscious.
Several witnesses said they saw him on the day of the murder with blood stains on his clothing. He allegedly told local resident Clifford Sass that the blood was from slaughtering a cow the previous day.

It was however later revealed that the blood found on his clothes matched that of the young victim.
Forensic pathologist Mariette Hurst testified that there had been no signs of strangulation, but two wounds to her neck as well as severe vaginal injuries - the worst Hurst had every seen.
No semen was found, but Hurst said this could have been washed away with the heavy bleeding.

She further said the girl was found, lying face-down and not on her back as Booysen suggested in his plea explanation. She was also fully clothed, but Hurst said she believed someone had dressed the girl after the incident as she would have been in such severe pain that she would not have been able to dress herself.
Judgment is expected to be delivered on Thursday.