The Station Strangler: Norman Simons’s release divides the community
Johannesburg - Twelve-year-old Jeremy Smith was taught not to talk to strangers, but his family believe he knew the man that lured him to his death.
Smith’s body was found in dense bush in a shallow grave in Mitchells Plain on January 26, 1994.
He had been sodomised, strangled and his hands bound behind his back. He was also the 14th known victim of the killer the media would call the Station Strangler.
Sarah Booysen cared for Jeremy after his mother died when he was three. She was Jeremy’s aunt and this week she was reminded of the trauma she experienced in January 1994 when she was told her little boy was dead.
She had learnt that the man who was believed to be the Station Strangler, Norman Simons, was released from jail on Thursday after serving a sentence of 28 years from murder.
Booysen had known Simons and so had Jeremy.
The Booysen family got to know the popular teacher while attending church gatherings.
“I feel that he (Jeremy) was lured to his death because he was taught to never go with just anyone. Simons used to visit the church we attended when Jeremy was a baby,” said Booysen.
Simons’ release on Thursday has divided the community. There are those who believe the mild mannered teacher who can speak seven languages is innocent. Others believe in his guilt and that his freedom will once again bring terror to the Cape Flats.
“I was quite surprised when I heard he was coming out. There are so many of us who still struggle to talk about him. It really traumatised us all,” said one woman who knew him, but didn’t want her name used in the paper.
“You can’t imagine the devastation and havoc the Station Strangler created back then. And we know there are lots of stories and questions about whether it was actually (Norman Afzal) who murdered and brutally raped so many innocent little boys. But what if it was? I would not like to ever see him again,” said another woman, who knew him and wanted to remain anonymous.
Simons was released into the care of his family in Parow and will be on parole for the rest of his life. This prison sentence was for the conviction in 1995 of the murder of 10-year-old Elroy van Rooyen. However the bodies of 21 other young boys and one man were found in shallow graves between 1986 and 1994 and these have been attributed to the Station Strangler.
DNA analysis of these victims were never linked to Simons and because of this, activists in Mitchells Plain have called for the 21 unsolved cases to be reopened with the use of new forensic technology.
“Mitchells Plain Police Station cannot take the responsibility alone when it comes to the reopening of the 21 cases. We as a community demand that these cases be reopened because we know that the field of forensics is far advanced. You cannot sit with five bodies that are unidentified of that era,” said Mitchells Plain United Residents Association chairperson Michael Jacobs.
Mitchells Plain Station Commander Brigadier Jan Alexander said if new evidence was brought to light relating to the 21 other murders, they would investigate it.
Eleven-year-old Elino Sprinkle’s body was discovered on January 20, 1994 in the Weltevreden bush and this week his family told the Saturday Star’s sister paper the Weekend Argus that they were unaware of Simons’ release.
Elino’s cousin, who asked not to be identified, said the entire family were in a state of shock: “I was told about this case while growing up and when the family saw (his parole) on the television we were shocked.”
According to a police forensic document, DNA found on Elino was not a match with Simons’.
“The family has not been visited by the police, no one has informed us about anything and the elders are very upset about this,” he added.
Despite the call for the cases to be reopened, justice experts have questioned the police’s original investigation.
A copy of Simons’ confession, extracts of the eyewitness account and notes from the identity parade were shared with Independent Media by Professor Colin Tredoux of the Department of Psychology at the University of Cape Town. Tredoux has extensively researched the Station Strangler case with the help and guidance of The Innocence Project in the US.
“It is our view that both the eyewitness identification and the confession(s) have flaws in the Simons case,” Tredoux said.
He said Simons’ confession was not clear because he was deprived of sleep, was interrogated for days and may have been pressured. He also didn’t indicate if he had murdered anyone, only that he had heard the voices telling him to kill.
“What happened in the Simons case would not be acceptable at all under the constitution ratified after 1994,” he said.