Sentencing proceedings are expected to start in the Western Cape High Court on Wednesday, in the case against Bradley Noble, who was convicted of raping and murdering teenager Michaela Adriaanse, in 2015.
On Tuesday, Gasps of relief could be heard from the public gallery as the Western Cape High Court found the 36-year-old guilty of the rape and murder of a Cape Town teenager.
Acting Judge Yolanda Renqe said Noble had not been a credible and honest witness and that his version of events of March 19, 2015, had been “full of discrepancies and inconsistencies”.
She said she was satisfied that the State had proved its case beyond reasonable doubt.
Sixteen-year-old Adriaanse, together with several school friends, had gone to Wynberg public pool on March 19, last year, but they were refused entry as it was a school day.
Instead, they headed off to Kalk Bay beach, where they smoked marijuana and drank whiskey. There, they met Noble, who introduced himself as a drug merchant from Retreat.
Later in the day, Adriaanse had a fight with a school friend and stormed off to join a group of men from Manenberg. She then returned to her friends, got her bag and left.
During the trial, her friends testified that Noble had said he would bring Adriaanse back and that he followed her. That was the last time they saw her alive.
The teenager’s friends spent the next few hours searching for her.
At about 8pm that night they caught the last train home. They went to Adriaanse’s Hanover Park home and told her parents the teen was missing.
The family reported the case to Muizenberg police station and that night they went to Noble’s home, but he was not there. They returned with police for a second time after midnight and this time found him sleeping.
He denied being at the beach, until he saw one of the schoolgirls he had been with that day. He also denied knowing where Adriaanse was, and even helped police in the search for her.
Three days later, on Sunday March 22, 2015, her body was found in a bushy area in Kalk Bay.
The court found that the cause of death was blunt force trauma to her face caused by a large object, most likely a rock.
Noble maintained his innocence throughout the trial and claimed that he had had consensual sex with the teenager.
He pinned the blame for the murder on State witness Trevor Benn. He said Benn had arrived at the scene and wanted to have sex with Adriaanse, but when she refused he killed her.
But, the acting judge dismissed this version: “Trevor was never at the crime scene as alleged by [the] accused.”
She said Noble was “not averse to being economical with the truth” and that he had “crumbled miserably under cross examination”.
South Africa Today – South Africa News
