DNA samples the key in rapid conviction

By Alex Eliseev and Louise Flanagan

In the fastest serial murder and rape trial in South Africa's history, a man who terrorised a township in Modimolle, Limpopo, was convicted and sentenced in just two days.

It took only three police witnesses to secure a massive sentence of 26 life terms, plus 220 years imprisonment, against David Randitshene, who attacked 17 girls, a boy and a woman over a period of four years.

The man whose unit assisted local detectives in the case, Professor Gerard Labuschagne, called the speed of the trial a "strange turn of events", considering the 45-year-old killer had pleaded not guilty.

His undoing, however, was admitting DNA evidence collected by the police during another first: the largest mass DNA screening ever carried out in a South African police case. During the DNA tests, 543 samples were tested, and eventually produced the single match that led to Randitshene's arrest in May last year.

Labuschagne explained that the first scene his investigative psychology unit was called out to revealed two bodies, one recently killed and the other decomposed to a skeleton. Knowing that serial killers often used the same dumping ground, a task team was set up to search for a serial killer.

Police gathered DNA samples from the small Phagameng community under siege, hoping the killer lived among them. They had 12 cases (murders and rapes) where DNA evidence pointed to the same person - all they needed was that person, Labuschagne said.

Eventually, in April last year, a match led them to a neighbour of one of the latest victims. "We knew the township was small and serial killers often work in their own areas," Labuschagne said.

Randitshene lived with his wife and has three children. According to police profiling, he has a Grade 5 education and was an unemployed bricklayer and farmer. Police had previously arrested other suspects, but released them due to lack of evidence. The first day of the trial was taken up by the testimony of the investigating officer.

The second saw a trial-within-a-trial over the pointings-out that Randitshene made within days of his arrest - during which two officers gave evidence.

The State prosecutor, advocate JP Marais, had lined up 113 witnesses but needed only the first three. "We started yesterday and we finished today," he said. "He made all the admissions (89 in total) I sought."

On Wednesday, Randitshene was jailed by Judge Roger Claassen, of the Modimolle Circuit High Court.

Marais, who has convicted other serial killers, said the sentence - for 46 counts - was a personal best. Randitshene will be eligible for parole in 35 years, when he is 80.