Dros 'rapist' case: Waitress quit job because she can't forget 'the blood, the screaming'

Pretoria High Court judge Papi Mosopa will on Monday deliver judgment in the case against Nicholas Ninow, who has admitted to raping a seven-year-old girl at a restaurant.

In addition to rape, Ninow, 21, pleaded guilty to possession of drugs and defeating the ends of justice. He pleaded not guilty to assault. The state withdrew a charge of kidnapping.

The court has heard that on the day of the incident in September 2018, Ninow had consumed “substantial” amounts of a drug called Cat and alcohol before and when he went to the Dros restaurant in Silverton, Pretoria.

The court has also been told that Ninow changed tables at the establishment to be closer to the kiddies’ corner.

In his plea explanation, Ninow claimed the child found him in a bathroom cubicle. The child, however, told the court when she testified in camera, that Ninow had found her in the cubicle.

The state asked that the trial continue, saying it was not satisfied with parts of his plea explanation.

One of the waitresses who testified in the trial told Rapport newspaper that she quit her job because she could not stand seeing the toilet where it happened every day.

"Long after that day, I continued to struggle sleeping. I eventually resigned, because every time that I saw that toilet, I returned to that moment, with the man, the child, the blood, and the screaming."

Judge Mosopa, who is presiding over the case, has heard "some pretty gruesome cases", according to the Judges Matter website.

He was critical of the state in the Ninow trial last week, reprimanding it for only calling two witnesses for the day.

One of the cases he has presided over, was one in which three men were found guilty of drowning two men and gang raping their partners and robbing them of their belongings at Rhodes Park in 2015.

“In 2017, he handed down four life sentences each in convicting three criminals for murder, rape and robbery with aggravated circumstances in an incident which shook the southern suburbs of Johannesburg,” said Judges Matter.

Mosopa also sentenced serial rapist and killer Charles Mthethwa, a Zimbabwean national, to five life terms as well an additional total of more than 210 years behind bars, IOL reported.