Policeman in court charged with rape
By Hendrick Mphande
Source: The Herald Online
SUSPENDED police constable Kenneth Freeman yesterday pleaded not guilty on two charges of rape when he appeared in the Port Elizabeth Magistrate’s Court.
It is alleged that while on patrol duty during a night in August 1999 he, in two separate incidents, forced women into the back of the van and raped them near the North End lake.
Giving evidence yesterday Mr Freeman, who is married with two children, denied any involvement in the matter.
He said on the day in question he was driving a police van along Govan Mbeki Avenue when he spotted a blue BMW with its emergency lights on.
He pulled off the road and noticed that there were four occupants – two men and two women. One man asked him to accompany him urgently to Crawford Street, North End, where another BMW was stuck.
Const Freeman, who was represented by attorney Linneen Swarts, said he was joined by a woman from the blue BMW and drove the police van towards the scene where he found a man and woman having sex in the other BMW.
‘‘I left the woman inside the van with my cellphone as I went to investigate the problem with the second car,” he said.
When he returned to his car both his phone and the woman had disappeared.
“I then started looking for the woman. When she saw me, she started to run away and screamed while threatening to undress herself.”
Minutes later members of the police arrived at the scene as the alleged rape victim was already undressed.
