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Cape Town pastor sentenced to 50 years for rape, murder spree

A Mitchells Plain pastor behind a three-year crime spree which left two women dead has been sentenced in the Western Cape High Court to an effective 50 years behind bars after he entered a plea and sentencing agreement with the state.

Keith Bird, 51, admitted guilt to 14 charges, ranging from rape to murder.

He, in the agreement, admitted to killing his ex-fiancée An-Niesa Bardien, 36, six years ago, after their engagement was broken off by asking a woman to lure her into the bushes near Camp Road in Strandfontein. The woman had walked with Bardien into the bushes, but got scared and ran away.

Bird said he had strangled Bardien until she lost consciousnesses and "crushed her head" by hitting her several times with a rock.

Her decomposing body was found buried in a shallow grave 10 days later, on January 18, 2013.

"My direct intention was to kill [her]," he admitted.

Four months later, Bird raped and strangled Sharvonne Koense, 20, a young woman he had met at a party on May 18, 2013.

After a conversation, he had convinced Koense to walk with him; he lured her into the bushes near Baden Powell Road in Tafelsig, where he raped and strangled her.

Her half-naked body was discovered that same day.

Bird admitted guilt to four charges of crimen injuria for recording himself having sex with a colleague and showing the recording to four co-workers.

READ MORE: Showing off your sex tape could land you in jail

The woman would have sex with Bird for favours at work. Bird, the complainant's supervisor at a cleaning company, had made the recording without her permission.

The State alleges that the woman had not been aware that he had made a recording, which he showed to four co-workers.

He further pleaded guilty to eight charges of rape.

In January 2014, he met a woman he had encountered on messaging app, Mxit. Calling himself "Jerome", he went to her Lentegeur house where he raped her.

"I told her that I had already killed a lot of people," he said in his agreement.

He had also stolen her phone.

Between January and May 2014, he had raped her twice a week, threatening to kill her family if she "does not cooperate".

In May 2014, he created a false Facebook profile of a woman called "Kelly" and sent his next victim a friend request.

He offered the woman a modelling job and lured her to the bushes in Rocklands on May 31, 2014, for a "shoot on the beach".

He, at knife point and armed with a Taser, threatened her to perform oral sex on him, and strangled her when she refused.

ALSO READ: Pastor arrested for allegedly raping minor at his church

Two years later, he raped a woman in his Lost City house after she agreed to meet him to discuss prospective employment on January 25, 2016.

"I told her to wash herself and leave," he said.

Two weeks later, he told the woman he would buy her toiletries and slippers if she met him at Tafelsig clinic.

"I told her that if she tells anyone what happened I would kill her mother and her family."

When she met him at the clinic, he walked her toward Kapteinsklip Station, telling her they were going to a friend's house.

Instead, he raped her on a blanket in the bushes.

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