Independent Newspaper Limited
Serial rape accused Reginald Temana covers his face in the Pretoria High Court. Photo: Masi Losi
The man alleged to have raped 10 women in the Pretoria central business district over a couple of months before he was arrested, has portrayed himself as a Casanova.
He told the Pretoria High Court onTuesday that he had slept with so many women in his life that he cannot recall whether the women who claimed he had raped them were among his girlfriends.
Reginald Alexandra Temana, 20, denied that he had raped any of the women who claimed he at first approached them in a friendly manner before turning into a brutal rapist. Nine of these women also claimed he had robbed them.
“I don’t know any of these women accusing me of rape. But I had a lot of girlfriends and a lot of sex with different women. I cannot recall any of these women, but I never had sex with anyone on the mountain. It was mostly in my flat.”
Temana said he lived in a flat in the CBD and often walked the streets at night and brought women back to his flat. He denied ever being up the mountain next to Langenhoven High School, as claimed by the women.
Asked by his counsel why eight of the alleged victims had identified him during an ID parade as being the rapist, Temana said he had no idea. They might have seen a picture of him which the police took after his arrest, which also depicted the scar on his chest, he said.
Nearly all the victims described their attacker as having a scar on his chest.
Temana insisted on taking off his shirt and bared his chest to the court. He told Judge Cynthia Pretorius he did have a scar, but it was not located where the women said it was. But the scar shown to the court was on his chest.
Temane said the scar was the result of robbers attacking him.
Temane is also facing a charge of murder, following the death of an unknown woman whose body was recovered at Schubart Park flats. His DNA was found on the woman’s body. It is not known how she died, but a pathologist said it seemed she had fallen several metres to the ground.
Temane said he did not know the woman, but she could have been a prostitute, as he often went to Schubart Park to “buy”.
Asked by his counsel about the fact that a police forensic expert testified that his DNA (semen) was found in nearly all the alleged victims, Temane at first said they must have been his lovers at some time. But he later said: “I don’t have an explanation. I know nothing.”
Temane claimed that the last woman who pointed him out to police as her rapist was his girlfriend.
She had accused him because they had an argument and she had been upset with him, he said.
But she, like the many others who took the stand, cried bitterly when she told of how she was brutally raped by Temane.
He was grilled by the State on why all these women would frame him. Prosecutor Cornelia Harmse said the first alleged victim had made her statement months before his arrest, describing the scar on his chest. But Temane said a lot of people knew about his scar.
“Did you or did you not have sex with these women? “ Harmse asked. Temane said he could not say, as he could not recall the number of girlfriends he had, nor their faces.
Asked about the murdered woman at Schubart Park, Temane said he did not know her at all. Harmse insisted he take a good look at her face on the pictures handed to court of her body. Temane at first refused to look at the pictures.
He repeatedly said: “It scares me. I don’t want to see the pictures.”
After taking a look, he said he did not know whether he had sex with her, but if she was a prostitute, he probably did. He, however, said he has never killed anyone in his life.
(Proceeding)
Pretoria News
Continued here:
Serial rape accused: I’m a Casanova