A syndicate of robbers who terrorised Camps Bay have been convicted of a host of crimes, including housebreaking, rape and robbery with aggravating circumstances.
In a lengthy judgment handed down by Western Cape High Court Justice James Yekiso, he found the five men – gang leader Luis Momadi, as well as Arnaldo Faife, Rogerio Laice, Sabastine Okele and Thamsanqa Mafuya – guilty of an assortment of charges.
Yekiso took four days to read the 121-page document into record to allow for interpretation for the accused. He finished on Friday.
The five terrorised Camps Bay residents between September 2006 and December 2008 as they carried out a string of robberies.
Momadi was convicted of eight of the 16 charges related to the robberies.
Both Faife and Laice were convicted of seven counts. Okele was found guilty of three charges, and knowingly being in possession of stolen property, while Mafuya was convicted only of being in possession of stolen property.
Their crime spree predominantly took place in a few months in 2008.
According to Yekiso’s judgement, it started in March 2008 when Momadi broke into the home of Camps Bay resident Siegfried Strasser, assaulted him, his wife and another woman and stole a cellphone, jewellery and keys.
On November 2, he returned to the area with Faife and Laice. They robbed the home of a local couple, taking expensive items. Momadi raped the woman.
Just two days later, they broke into the home of Grant Dutton. They stole expensive items such as designer sunglasses, a flat screen TV, iPods and three watches.
The three men robbed two more houses that month, this time bringing Okele along.
They raided the homes of Hans Gunter on November 8, and David and Noleen Knott on November 25, holding them at gunpoint.
When they robbed the Knotts, one of them was alleged to have told Noleen Knott what a “nice bedroom” she had. He asked her to sit next to him on the bed and asked whether she’d “ever been kissed by a black man”.
The men, who stole cellphones, cameras, cash, clothing, whisky and passports, are yet to be sentenced.
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