JOHANNESBURG – The son of the notorious paedophile Gert van Rooyen has been arrested on charges of theft and fraud. 

According to North West police spokesperson Brig Sabata Mokgwabone, Gerhard Van Rooyen and Elana Van Rooyen (his wife), both aged 49, appeared in the Klerksdorp Magistrates’ Court for theft and fraud.

They were remanded in custody until Friday, 05 January 2017 for a formal bail application.

According to Mokgwabone, “The accused’s arrest follows alleged fraud wherein they sold cars to unsuspecting clients and convinced them to deposit money into their accounts. The suspect would then fail to give clients cars or refund them.

“We cannot at this stage confirm if Gerhard will be questioned about his father’s crimes.”

Gert van Rooyen was a South African paedophile and serial killer who killed at least six young girls between 1988 and 1989.

Van Rooyen and his female accomplice, Joey Haarhoff, are believed to be responsible for the abduction, sexual assault, and murder of several missing girls, aged between nine and sixteen-years-old, across eastern South Africa.

READ: Police excavate KZN beach in search of #GertvanRooyen victims

In early 1990, when faced with arrest after the escape of their latest kidnap victim, Van Rooyen killed Haarhoff before committing suicide.

Despite the evidence against them, the two were never formally convicted due to their deaths, and the bodies of their supposed victims were never found.

In February 2001, Flippie van Rooyen, Gert van Rooyen’s son, was found guilty of perjury in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court. He was charged with three counts of perjury after giving police conflicting statements under oath relating to the six missing schoolgirls.

These claims included how his father dissolved the bodies of the girls he kidnapped in acid in a Satanic ritual, the acid supposedly supplied by Flippie from Iscor where he worked at the time.

He also implicated that three National Party cabinet ministers were involved in the kidnappings of Odette Boucher (11), Anne-Mari Wapenaar (12) and Joan Booysen (16). Gert van Rooyen was also linked to the disappearances of Yolanda Wessels (12), Fiona Harvey (12), Joan Horn (12) and Tracy-Lee Scott-Crossley (14).

Flippie further claimed that they were buried in sand dunes near Umdloti, that his father had kidnapped and sold 40 young girls, and that he was helped by politicians to smuggle them out of the country.

Flippie was then already in jail for a death sentence which had been commuted to life imprisonment, for the murder of a 15-year-old Zimbabwean girl. He was paroled in 2008.

In June this year, a team of forensic specialists excavated Blythedale Beach, north of Durban in KwaZulu-Natal, where notorious paedophile Gert van Rooyen is believed to possibly have buried his victims.

The excavations come after a 15-month investigation by the television programme Fokus.

Gerhard van Rooyen was previously sentenced to 15 years in prison for theft and fraud. 

eNCA