THE life sentence imposed on Theunis Olivier ends a career of sexual predation that lasted more than 25 years, spanned two countries and claimed about 30 victims.
THE life sentence imposed on Theunis Olivier ends a career of sexual predation that lasted more than 25 years, spanned two countries and claimed about 30 victims.
But his worst crime - the rape and murder of six-year-old Steven Siebert, for which he was sentenced on Wednesday - might not have happened if the police and prosecutors in KwaZulu-Natal had done their jobs.
Olivier, 49, told the Cape High Court in a plea for mercy that he had been abused as a child in Zimbabwe by his alcoholic father, by one of his brothers and at boarding school.
He said he took part in Satanic rituals, had himself tattooed with "the mark of the Beast" and had tried to kill himself when he was five.
He was first convicted of indecent assault in 1981, at the age of 23, and four years later was found guilty of rape.
Olivier spent the next 15 years in prison in Zimbabwe and on his release crossed illegally into South Africa under one of at least three aliases.
He roamed from Cape Town to Bethlehem to KwaZulu-Natal, where he worked as a farm manager at a refuge for children.
He was arrested there in 2004 in connection with five charges of indecent assault and spent five months in custody awaiting trial- but a magistrate threw out the charges because of bungling by the police and prosecutors.
Olivier then travelled the Garden Route, ending up in Plettenberg Bay in 2005, working as a handyman.
Two days before Christmas he spotted Steven on a beach and lured him to his house, where he killed him after sexually abusing him.
