The accused in the Deveney Nel murder case is a minor, but the crimes of which he is accused are definitely not.
Since the 17-year-old boy appeared in the Caledon Magistrates’ Court on a charge of murder in connection with the Grabouw 16-year-old’s death last week, it has come to light that he has previously been accused of raping and assaulting a young girl when he was only 13 years old at the end of December 2020, shortly before he started his high-school career at Hoërskool Overberg in Caledon.
The provincial education department has confirmed the school was not aware of any alleged prior incidents.
Reports in Die Burger and Rapport over the weekend stated that the mother of the victim, who was only 11 at the time of the alleged incident, was later informed that it had been found that the accused couldn’t be held criminally liable for his alleged deeds and that the case against her daughter’s alleged rapist had been withdrawn in June last year.
The media reports also stated that it was recommended that the accused be enrolled in a sex offenders’ programme.
The provincial Department of Social Development confirmed it has launched an extensive investigation into the matter since being informed of the allegations.
“When the Western Cape Government was made aware of the alleged incident and subsequent allegations, we immediately started looking into what may have transpired,” the department stated.
“We will be tracking down the case files and all relevant documentation related to this alleged incident to get a comprehensive understanding of the matter.
“We have also reached out to the Department of Justice and the [police] so we may have all the relevant related information. So far we can confirm the department’s records show it did not receive a referral from the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) to the Children’s Court for the alleged matter the media are referring to. If, after gathering all the case file information from all provincial government’s departments and other organisations, we find that further investigations are required we will not hesitate to do so, and do so thoroughly.
“Our department’s social workers and those from designated child-protection organisations work incredibly hard to ensure the protection of vulnerable children as per national legislation, often under difficult circumstances, and we value them deeply. If there were failures in our system we will address them.
“We will keep the members of the public informed, where we are legally able to, as we gather more information and encourage anyone to come forward if they have further information.”
Identity protected
Outcries on social media platforms for the suspect to be “named and shamed” intensified over the weekend. Details of the alleged rape were also published in Die Burger andRapport.
But despite these outcries, legal experts say the minor’s identity might never be revealed.
According to the Child Justice Act, which is applicable in the case as the accused is younger than 18, Deveney’s alleged killer will be prosecuted as a juvenile.
Eric Ntabazalila, spokesperson for the NPA in the Western Cape, added: “If the accused turns 18 before the conclusion of the criminal proceedings, and if convicted, he will be sentenced as set out in S v N and Another, where it was held that: ‘when a person commits an offence while under the age of 18, their conduct falls to be judged in the context of these considerations.
“‘It would make no sense then to treat them as adults for sentencing purposes simply because the intervening passage of time has resulted in their being adults when sentencing occurs.
“That would mean punishing them for what they had done as children as if it had been done when they were adults’.”
Whether more charges may be added to the case, and whether it might be transferred to the Western Cape High Court at a later stage will be determined at a later stage, Ntabazalila added.
Asked whether the media will be allowed to attend the court proceedings once the accused turns 18, Ntabazalila stated: “It will depend on the circumstances and considerations of this matter at the time.”
Background
The accused was arrested hours after he reportedly attended a special memorial service for Deveney on Friday 16 August. The service was limited to staff, learners and parents of Hoërskool Overberg.
The teenager, said to have been a Grade 11 learner at Hoërskool Overberg, reportedly also assisted in the search for Deveney after her mother reported her missing when she failed to show up for her lift club travelling from the school in Caledon to the family’s home in Grabouw.
Deveney’s body was discovered hours later on Wednesday 7 August, in a small storeroom on the school’s premises.
The murder investigation was taken over by the provincial Serious and Violent Crimes Unit under the leadership of Brigadier Leon Hanana.
Stark reminder
The allegations of rape against the teenager, who now faces a charge of murder, serves as a stark reminder of another case in the Overberg, where a young girl, Delvinia Europa, was raped and murdered by a man who was released back into society after being convicted of a 12-year-old girl’s rape.
Reagan Zietsman received a five-year suspended sentence for the rape in January 2017.
Two years later, while the suspended sentence was still in effect, he was arrested for the six-year-old Delvinia’s murder and rape in March 2019. He received two life sentences for Delvinia’s murder and rape as well as a sentence of eight years’ imprisonment for kidnapping and five years for defeating the ends of justice.
At the time, Delvinia’s father, Dawid Jagers, said although he was satisfied with the sentence, he felt his daughter’s death may have been prevented if Zietsman was behind bars.
“If he received a heavy sentence the first time, my child would still have been alive,” Jagers pointed out..
