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Bloemfontein – Genital mutilator accused, Danish national Peter Frederiksen, complained to the Bloemfontein Magistrate’s Court yesterday that the media’s pictures of him were humiliating.
Frederiksen was also not happy with the large number of police officers who accompanied him to court.
Dressed in green pants and a dark T-shirt, Frederiksen sat in a packed public gallery with other offenders, including his co-accused Motlatsi Moqeti, who was in a wheelchair.
Frederiksen’s lawyer Luthando Tshangana pleaded with the court to forbid journalists from taking pictures of Frederiksen in handcuffs.
“It’s humiliating, the way the accused has been portrayed in the media. He has two minor children who are still at a home and it wouldn’t be appropriate . . . seeing him in cuffs,” he said.
Magistrate Paula Berry said the media should only take pictures of his face and told the police they were overdoing it.
“I understand there was a risk at some point, but I really think you’re overdoing it,” she told the officers.
The case stood down briefly yesterday morning for logistical reasons.
Frederiksen, 63, is facing charges of assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm, conspiracy to murder, bigamy, and manufacturing, distributing and possessing child pornography.
He is also accused of killing his wife, Matseliso Molise, 28. Moqeti allegedly helped him arrange the hit.
Molise would have been a key State witness in the case against her husband. She was shot four times next to the gate of her house in Maseru, Lesotho, on Tuesday, October 20, last year.
Frederiksen, who owned a gun shop in Bloemfontein, was arrested in his Langenhoven Park home the previous month. A total of 21 packages with women’s clitorises were found in his freezer, as well as surgical equipment and photographs of female genitalia. – Sapa
Online Reporter