A FORMER magistrate who faces rape charges in two separate cases is still behind bars after his appeal against a decision not to grant him bail was dismissed in the Windhoek High Court yesterday.
He could find no fault with the way the magistrate who presided over Jaco Kennedy’s bail hearing dealt with the bail application, Judge Alfred Siboleka said when he handed down judgement on Kennedy’s appeal against the magistrate’s decision.
In the circumstances of Kennedy’s case, it was his view that it would not have been in the public interest for the magistrate to grant bail to Kennedy, Judge Siboleka said in the appeal judgement.
The Namibian reported that Kennedy (29), who is a law graduate and former magistrate, was on bail on an earlier rape charge when he was again arrested on a count of rape at the end of January this year. After a bail hearing in the Windhoek Magistrate’s Court in Katutura, magistrate Bernedine Kubersky turned down his request to be granted bail on 22 February.
Kennedy was arrested on 30 January in connection with an incident that is alleged to have taken place in Windhoek on 31 December last year.
Judge Siboleka recounted in his judgement that Kennedy is alleged to have offered transport to the complainant in the case while she was waiting for a taxi to take her to work. Instead of driving to her workplace, though, he allegedly stopped at a nearby riverbed, where he sexually assaulted her, according to the complainant.
He then dropped her off at work, where a friend was waiting for her. They took the registration number of his car, and she reported the alleged incident to the police on the same day.
Kennedy denied the complainant’s allegations during his bail hearing, and also denied that he gave transport to her on the morning in question.
He and a cousin of his are also charged with rape in an earlier case which emanated from an incident alleged to have taken place in Windhoek on 3 January last year. In that case, Kennedy and his cousin allegedly offered to give a 43−year−old woman transport from Otjomuise to the Windhoek city centre. However, they allegedly drove with her to an area between the Windhoek Central Hospital and the Katutura Intermediate Hospital, where they are alleged to have launched an attack on her.
A security guard in the area who heard screams from the woman summoned the police, who found Kennedy, his cousin and the woman on the scene and arrested the two men.
During their bail hearing, Kennedy denied he had raped the woman or helped his cousin to rape her.
The accused and his cousin were released on bail in an amount of N$3 000 each in early February last year after they had spent a month in custody.
Kennedy was represented by defence lawyer Boris Isaacks when his appeal against the refusal of his application for bail was argued. Deputy prosecutor general Innocentia Nyoni represented the state.-The Namibian