To catch a ‘dangerous criminal’
IF POLICE investigators heeded the warning signs and arranged treatment for Andre Gregory Mohamed in the days when he had a reputation of being a peeping Tom who committed lewd acts, he might have not evolved into a serial rapist.
That is the belief of now retired policeman Colonel Anton Booysen who previously investigated the more than 40 instances that Mohamed sexually assaulted, raped and stole from victims in Durban and Pretoria in the late 1990’s.
Mohamed usually committed those acts in his victims’ home and was not one to “rape and run”.
Booysen said Mahomed preferred to dialogue with the women he held at gunpoint.
Having already spent 23 years in jail, Mahomed’s latest bid for parole came to nought last week at the Durban Regional Court before Magistrate Sharon Marks.
A major stumbling block in his freedom bid was him being labelled a “dangerous criminal”.
This classification still stood after Marks considered evidence from various expert witnesses and the State, represented by advocate Val Melis, during his sentence review application that began earlier this year.
Marks handed him another indeterminate sentence (no defined period) because he was a dangerous criminal and ruled that he was eligible for another review on November 27, 2026.
She stipulated that he must undergo more sessions of psychotherapy on a monthly basis.
Booysen, who retired in 2021 after 43 years of police duties, got assigned the Mohamed case as a first assignment with Durban’s old Murder and Robbery Unit in 1997.
“Apart from being a peeping Tom, Andre (Mahomed) was not so well known back then. When I got the docket he had already raped about five women,” said Booysen.
Mahomed profiled and raped 43 women in Durban and Pretoria, 21 were local ladies from the Morningside area. The victims' ages ranged between 18 and 35.
Booysen said he targeted “white women only, and there would have been more counts but some were reluctant to open cases.
He knew of a victim who refused because she was afraid her husband would divorce her if he became aware of her rape.
Another told him that her father was in hospital after undergoing open heart surgery and might not cope with the rape news.
Booysen was handed the matter after a wealthy lady was raped in her home near Durban’s Mitchell Park.
“Her parents put pressure received attention in Parliament.
“I could understand their frustration because important things were overlooked at the crime scene because of a lack of diligence by the previous investigators.”
After raping the victim in one of the rooms in her home, Booysen said Mahomed performed a lewd act.
“I realised that there would be DNA material (semen) on the carpet.”
Booysen sent a piece of carpet to the the SAPS’ forensics laboratory in Pretoria for analysis.
“From that it was only going to be a matter of time before I linked him to other cases where semen samples were taken.
He said Mahomed also took the victim’s Mercedes Benz, which he later sold and her mobile phone.
“That was game over for him”
Mahomed was arrested in the presence of his family in a flat they lived in near the Atrium (formerly Overport City) shopping mall and he had a toy gun, which he used in the commission of his crimes.
“The gun looked very real.”
Booysen said Mahomed, who worked as a welder also operated as a “lookout” on the Berea for car thieves, “that’s when he got his ideas” while scanning flats in the area.
“He would knock on doors and when women opened doors, he would grab and sexually assault them.”
Booysen said Mahomed would hang out at shopping malls and follow women to their flats and “tailgate” them as they entered their buildings.
He would move into the foyer and pretend to be looking for mail in a postbox and then enter the lift with an intended victim.
He would rape this victim in her flat otherwise it would happen on the stairwell if there someone in her home.
Mahomed escaped from police custody while being readied for an ID parade before multiple victims; Booysen was not permitted to be present.
Mahomed fled to Pretoria by plane and dressed in a “burka” to avoid detection.
Four days after his escape he raped his first Pretoria victim.
By then Mahomed was a wanted man as police circulated his picture far and wide.
A facial reconstruction expert was working on an identikit with information received from a Pretoria victim and realised it was the man Booysen was looking for, and contacted him.
Through collaboration with police in Pretoria and the evidence they gathered, Booysen was able to establish that Mahomed was in the city and tracked him to a flat opposite the Yeoville police station.
When Booysen banged on the flat’s door on the first floor, Mahomed jumped from a window to escape, only to land into the arms of a policeman positioned there.
Two of Mahomed’s Pretoria victims were successful with their damages claim against the minister of police.
One of the ladies was in a rush to meet with her family for her father’s birthday celebration. Mahomed was able to get her to open the door to her third-floor flat by saying he had accidentally bumped into her car that she had just parked.
At some point during the ordeal in her home the woman jumped through a window because Mahomed asked her to leave with him.
Booysen said investigating matter had a huge impact on him and it was never easy interviewing rape victims.
“I was brought to tears on many occasions, I couldn’t hold back. People think you are a cowboy when you work for the murder and robbery unit.
“Knowing that Andre could strike at any time placed much pressure on me.
“I was ecstatic when he was re-arrested. I had built a solid case against him. It was one of my highlights as a detective.”
Even in retirement Booysen said he was contacted by students and others doing case studies on Mahomed.
Booysen appreciated that Marks presided over Mahomed’s matter over the years because she understood the background.