'Sunday Rapist' admits porn, child porn addiction

The alleged ‘Sunday rapist’ on Tuesday admitted being addicted to pornography and child pornography.

"It's a danger. It becomes an addiction that consumes all your time and attention," Johannes Jacobus Steyn told the High Court, sitting in the Palm Ridge Magistrate's Court in Alberton.

Steyn has pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder, 11 of rape, 10 of sexual assault, 10 of kidnapping, one of attempted sexual assault, and one of attempted kidnapping.

He said he watched a lot of pornography and child pornography. He likened the addiction to that of cigarettes and alcohol, and said it interfered with his work.

"I would get to work and watch pornography before starting my work."

Carina Coetzee, for the State, asked whether this addiction caused him to act out, to which he answered: "It leads to increased urges, yes."

She asked if he ever re-enacted what he saw in these films.

"Not necessarily," Steyn answered.

Judge Sita Kolbe asked him to explain his reply. He said he had re-enacted some of the sexual acts, but others were a bit far-fetched.

Earlier, the court heard Steyn describing himself as a monster in a confession he made after teenager Louise de Waal was murdered.

"That was just what came into my head... It is what the media would call me."

He made the confession to a magistrate in Krugersdorp the day after De Waal was kidnapped and murdered on October 12, 2011.

Steyn had maintained since the onset of the trial that the confession was forced from him.

Coetzee put it to Steyn that his allegedly coerced confession was strikingly similar to actual events. She read out how he apologised in the confession to plaintiffs and their families, for them to get closure.

"The others I let go, but not this one," Coetzee read from his confession. She asked who he was referring to. He replied that it was De Waal.

Her mother, Shereen, sat in the gallery and asked softly: "But why?"

In the confession, he asked forgiveness from the community, saying this was the first girl he had hurt and killed.

"I am a monster... The others I didn't hurt. Maybe psychologically," Coetzee read.

She continued reading from the confession how Steyn admitted to abducting De Waal, how he sexually assaulted, raped, and strangled her, and set her alight using paraffin.

In his confession he described how he took her clothes, a wig, vibrators, and set them alight at another venue.

"That's what I was told to say," Steyn said.

De Waal's mother covered her mouth with her hand.