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Scorpions SAPS-advocate attacked in Arcadia: Ismail Ashipembe of Namibia charged

The Advocate was "bitten, tied up and throttled so harshly that she had bloodshot eyes for days afterwards," the court heard.

November 19 2010 By Hanli Otto Independent Newspapers

The (white) woman advocate who was a legal advisor to the Scorpions SAPS unit allegedly "became hysterical when the grandson of a former Namibian High Commission employee entered her bedroom.So he had grabbed her to “calm her down” testified the man accused of attacking and robbing her, Ismail Ashipembe. He said in court that his grabbing her to 'calm her down' had 'appeared to “aggravate” her more, so “I concluded that I have to tie her down to keep her fixed”.

This man is accused of attacking the former Scorpions advocate on the night of October 12-13 2004 in her Arcadia Pretoria townhouse.

He pleaded not guilty to 67 charges, including attempted rape, robbery and theft committed with her bank card.

The advocate was "bitten, tied up and throttled so harshly that she had bloodshot eyes for days afterwards," the court heard.

She identified Ashipembe as her attacker the morning after the vicious attack.
Yesterday, the accused man claimed the woman "had offered, and gave him, cheques to the value of R300,000 and her bank card"- he denied he had 'robbed' her.
He claimed he'd 'even given her 'his initials and spelt his surname for her to write on the cheques."
However this did occur after the woman had 'tried to fight off her visitor and he was forced to tie her to a chair', the court heard.
Living in a unit next to the complainant’s, the accused black male said he had ' finished studying" at about 4am.
He went outside and noticed the complainant’s kitchen door was unlocked and claimed he just strolled into her house.
“I went inside and upstairs into the main bedroom. I switched on the light and saw the complainant in her bed. She also saw me, so I switched off the light again.
"She became hysterical, so I grabbed her to calm her down,” he testified.

As they wrestled on the bed, the "accused did not say anything" he said. He "grabbed sticky tape and tied the woman to a chair", he said.
“She stopped struggling when I overpowered her. I fastened her legs and hands. As I wanted to tie her torso to the chair, she started to struggle again. She bit my finger. I responded by biting her on top of her head,” Ashipembe said.
The chair broke and he decided to untie her, searching the bathroom for something to cut the tape, but he eventually just bit it off.
While he did this 'biting' he'd also bit one of her fingers he admitted during cross-examination by her legal representative.

“By this time she was hysterical. I took her downstairs. She said I could take her car and valuables. I said I did not want her car.
"She said she could give me cheques and whatever was in her purse. She wrote out a few cheques and gave me her bank card,” the accused said.
“She offered me the cheques. I didn’t ask for it,” he kept on insisting.
During cross-examination State prosecutor Vleis van Zyl asked Ashipembe why he entered the woman’s residence in the first place?
Ashipembe replied that 'it was a spur-of-the-moment thing."

When asked why he did not run away when the complainant saw him, or tell her he was her neighbour checking on why her door was unlocked, Ashipembe replied:
“I was blind for a moment, I didn’t know what to do.”

He said "his intention was just to look around when he entered the house."
The trial continues. - Pretoria News
http://www.iol.co.za/news/crime-courts/she-bit-my-finger-1.847517