The ‘Facebook rapist’ was finally caught
CAPE TOWN: As clever as a squirrel jumps, it eventually falls to the ground as well.
That is the right proverb to describe the fate of the South African prisoner, Thabo Bester who was arrested by the Tanzanian authorities after escaping while in custody in May last year.
Bester, nicknamed the ‘Facebook rapist’, is serving a life sentence after being convicted of raping and murdering a model in 2012.
The man was also convicted of raping and robbing two women after tricking the victim on Facebook.
He escaped from prison in Bloemfentein by faking his death.
Bester tricked prison officials when a search of his burning cell found a mutilated body.
Prison officials believed the body to be Bester’s, but the man’s identity was revealed when the results of a deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) test last month confirmed that the body was another inmate who died as a result of being hit on the head with a blunt object.
Bester carried out his plan with the help of ‘insiders’ and the incident was an embarrassing episode for the South African prison service.
Bester’s arrest along with a Mozambican woman, Nandipha Magudumanadi believed to be her lover was confirmed by Justice Minister Ronald Lamola.
According to him, Bester and Nandipha who is also a medical doctor will be extradited to Johannesburg and placed in the maximum security prison in Kgosi Mampuru.
Nandipha now faces charges of conspiring to protect Bester, while her father faces criminal charges for conspiring to fake the rapist’s death in prison.
The investigation found that, before Bester’s ‘body’ was found, the man asked to be transferred to a solitary cell because he was worried about his safety.
Not long after, prison officials found the cell where Bester was on fire and a dismembered body was found, believed to be the criminal, under the mattress.
