Marquand – An elderly couple was attacked on Sunday evening June 7, 2015 in their farmhouse by three black men after a bedroom window was shattered with a hammer.
Gert van Rooyen (74) of the farm Saaibult, about 6 km outside town, was lying in his bed at about 20:30 when he heard a “loud noise.”
Unsuspectingly, and under the impression that a cupboard might have fallen over, he stood up.
“After I got up, I heard my wife, Sonya (73) screaming. Then I saw a man slapping and jerking her around,” he said. The next moment Gert was tackled from behind and pinned to the ground by another man.
“The man was beating me repeatedly in the face. I couldn’t get up from the ground,” he said on Monday.
During the attack his glasses broke, which left a cut to his cheek, and his gums were torn.
The Van Rooyen’s daughter, Mientjie (42), opened her door at that moment and the attacker, who was still sitting on top of Gert, jumped up and dived through the broken window. The other men followed.
“I am not shocked and I am not angry. I just have a desire to get hold of him, so that I can do with him as he did to me,” he said Monday about the attack.
The Van Rooyens have been living on the farm for nine years.
The attackers left empty-handed from the scene.
“I don’t know what their intention were,” Gert said.
Police arrested three men, aged 26, 30 and 32 years old late Sunday, after a tip-off from the community.
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