Cops roasted for Andy Kawa's Port Elizabeth beachfront rape ordeal
The police’s failure to properly investigate gang-rape complainant Andy Kawa’s 16-hour ordeal on the Port Elizabeth beachfront added to the Gauteng businesswoman’s already significant trauma, her legal representative argued.
During closing arguments in the Port Elizabeth High Court on Wednesday, Tim Bruinders, on behalf of Kawa, said the police’s failure on December 9 2010 had not been adequately explained.
“Police did not offer compelling reasons why they did not properly search for [Kawa].“The police [did not] take reasonably practical steps to prevent foreseeable harm to [Kawa] both in respect of the search and the investigation.
“We submit that the harm caused was foreseeable,” Bruinders said.
Addressing judge Sarah Sephton, Bruinders said the longer the duration of the incident, the more severe was the impact.
“The police knew at around 11pm that [Kawa’s] car was in the parking lot at Kings Beach.
“They must have foreseen that she was there – and because they didn’t find her this would lead to further harm.
“[Our submissions] are littered with incidents of negligence of the police,” he said.
Allegations that the police “did not do the simple thing of walking up the beach with torches” were among the submissions on behalf of Kawa.
Bruinders claimed that CCTV footage which would have been available at 8am on December 10 2010 showed further failure of the police in their investigations.
“Up to today [the investigating officer] hasn’t viewed the footage – this shows jaw-dropping negligence.”
Kawa instituted a R6m civil claim against the minister of police, former Humewood police station commander Brigadier Ronald Koll and two investigating officers for allegedly breaching their duties and failing to conduct a proper investigation.
Representing all the defendants in the case, advocate Chris Mouton SC said negligence alone was not enough to prove failure of duty unless a proven causal relationship between the initial trauma and prolonged trauma – experienced because of the alleged police negligence – was shown.
“The rape caused psychiatric damage which the police cannot be held liable for.”
Sephton reserved judgment.
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