Publications
Partners
The 25-year-old man accused of the rape and murder of six-year-old Stacey Adams is expected to appear in the Mitchell’s Plain Magistrate’s Court later this month after his hearing was postponed.
A large crowd of residents gathered outside the court to oppose bail when he appeared in court on Monday 30 July.
Stacey’s body was found buried in a shallow grave on Sunday 24 June at 16:30 shortly after being reported missing (“Girl (6) found in shallow grave”, People’s Post, 26 June).
“Mitchell’s Plain police were executing a search for a missing six-year-old child at a house in Delarey Circle, Eastridge. While busy with the search and interviewing the occupants, the body of the missing girl was found buried in a shallow grave on the property,” says police spokesperson, Captain Ian Williams.
“At the time the suspect was still inside the house and later had to be removed from the house by a Public Order Policing unit who deployed teargas and rubber bullets to disperse a hostile crowd.”
The crowd threw stones and petrol bombs at the house after previous attempts to storm the house and extract the suspect themselves.
The house, along with some of the adjacent properties, sustained extensive damage.
The suspect was arrested on a charge of murder and rape.
The man, believed to be the ex-boyfriend of Adams’s mother, allegedly confessed to the killing.
Her body was found near his wendy house on the property.
At the time of the discovery, minister for social development, Albert Fritz, said social workers from the Mitchell’s Plain local office had been rendering trauma counselling to the family, offering continued support.
Mitchell’s Plain Impact Association (MPIA) chairperson, Joanie Fredericks, expressed her heartache late that Sunday afternoon.
“[We] have to admit that not nearly enough is being done to curb the violence against children. The murder of the little Eastridge girl could and should have been prevented if we, the community didn’t start to feel a false sense of security. Organisations on the ground, including MPIA, have not done nearly enough awareness raising, we simply accepted that the communities will remember the devastating aftermath of 2017, the year when an unprecedented number of children were brutally raped and killed by those known to them – most of the perpetrators in trusted positions. It is absolutely unacceptable that we didn’t take the lessons learned last year to heart.”
The case was postponed to Thursday 16 August.
