A 22-year-old man on Monday, detailed to the Port Elizabeth High Court how he “violently” raped a 14-year-old girl and murdered her after her screams for help had agitated him.
The trial of Andre Tieman got underway on Monday where he pleaded guilty to charges of rape, murder and theft. Tieman was convicted accordingly following his guilty plea.
In April last year, 14-year-old Micaylen Hendricks of Uitenhage mysteriously went missing after he mother had sent her to a nearby shop to buy nappies for her younger sibling.
According to the State, Tieman saw the teenager, a grade six learner, walking and lured the teenager to his shack by telling her a “lie” — that he had her mother’s cellphone in his possession.
Defence attorney Robin O’Brien read Tieman’s guilty plea, in which he admitted to strangling Hendricks until she could no longer breathe.
“After I killed her, I wrapped her in a blanket and covered her with a ceiling board and placed her under the window. I then went to smoke dagga,” the plea read.
After the killing, Tieman stole the teenagers Nokia cellphone valued at R600.
Police lead an intensive search and discovered her body a week later in Tieman’s shack in the Moegesukkel informal settlement. Community members were outraged by the incident and burnt down Tieman’s shack.
In aggravation of sentence the State called the teenager’s father, Milton Ludick, who described his child as a shy girl who loved church.
Ludick who showed little emotion, said that he had known Tieman for a long time and had asked him if he had heard anything about his daughter’s disappearance to which Tieman denied any knowledge.
Investigating Officer Sergeant Benjamin van Wyk explained to the court how when police discovered the teenagers body in Tieman’s shack, it had already started to decompose.
State Prosecutor Garth Baartman argued that Tieman’s guilty plea should be taken with a “pinch of salt”. He asked for the minimum sentence of life imprisonment to be imposed and said that Tieman showed no remorse.
Baartman said that Tieman never handed himself over to police and he had no choice than to plead guilty as the evidence against him was too strong after being found in possession of the teenager’s cellphone.
Judge Irma Schoeman is expected to pass sentence on Tuesday.
-African News Agency (ANA)
