‘She bit my finger’

The woman became hysterical when the grandson of a former Namibian High Commission employee entered her bedroom. So he grabbed her to “calm her down”.

However, Ismail Ashipembe said, this appeared to “aggravate” her more, so “I concluded that I have to tie her down to keep her fixed”.

This man is accused of attacking a former Scorpions advocate on the night of October 12-13 2004 in her Arcadia townhouse. He pleaded not guilty to 67 charges, including attempted rape, robbery and theft committed with her bank card.

The complainant was allegedly bitten, tied up and throttled so harshly that she had bloodshot eyes for days afterwards. She identified Ashipembe as her attacker the morning after the incident.

Yesterday, the accused claimed the woman had offered, and gave him, cheques to the value of R300 000 and her bank card, denying that he had robbed her. He even gave her his initials and spelt his surname for her to write on the cheques.

The court heard that this was preceded with the woman trying to fight off her “visitor” and him tying her to a chair.

Living in a unit next to the complainant’s, the accused said he finished studying at about 4am. He went outside and noticed the complainant’s kitchen door was unlocked.

“I went inside and upstairs into the main bedroom. I switched on the light and saw the complainant in her bed. She also saw me, so I switched off the light again. She became hysterical, so I grabbed her to calm her down,” he testified.

As they wrestled on the bed, the accused did not say anything. He grabbed sticky tape and tied the woman to a chair, he said.

“She stopped struggling when I overpowered her. I fastened her legs and hands. As I wanted to tie her torso to the chair, she started to struggle again. She bit my finger. I responded by biting her on top of her head,” Ashipembe said.

The chair broke and he decided to untie her, searching the bathroom for something to cut the tape, but he eventually bit it off.

“By this time she was hysterical. I took her downstairs. She said I could take her car and valuables. I said I did not want her car. She said she could give me cheques and whatever was in her purse. She wrote out a few cheques and gave me her bank card,” the accused said.

“She offered me the cheques. I didn’t ask for it,” he insisted.

During cross-examination State prosecutor Vleis van Zyl asked Ashipembe why he entered the woman’s residence. He claimed it was a spur-of-the-moment thing.

When asked why he did not run away when the complainant saw him, or tell her he was her neighbour checking on why her door was unlocked, Ashipembe replied: “I was blind for a moment, I didn’t know what to do.”

He said his intention was just to look around when he entered the house.

The trial continues. - Pretoria News