Tazne van Wyk’s murder trial halted until suspect fully recovers

The rape and murder trial of eight-year-old Tazne van Wyk has been postponed to July 26 after the Western Cape High Court heard that the suspect, Moehydien Pangaker, is still recovering from the injuries he sustained a week ago.

Pangaker was allegedly attacked by two men in a truck that was transporting inmates from Pollsmoor Prison to the court building. He appeared briefly in court after the attack and revealed his injuries to the presiding judge.

He faces 27 charges including the kidnapping and murder of Tazne in 2020, 12 counts of rape, three counts of common assault, three counts of sexual assault, and two counts of kidnapping, incest and desecrating a corpse.

Tazne was last seen walking to a tuck shop near her Connaught Estate home in Elsies River, Western Cape in 2020. Her kidnapper was arrested a week later in Cradock in the Eastern Cape.

Pangaker then led the police to the girl’s mutilated body in a stormwater drain along the N1 highway near Worcester in the Western Cape.

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