A Midrand taxi driver, convicted of kidnapping, raping and murdering a passenger, told the High Court in Pretoria on Friday he was sorry.

However, he testified, the devil had made him do it.

Xolani Nyaba (31) was found guilty by Acting Judge Vivian Tlhapi on charges of kidnapping, raping, robbing and murdering Catherine Ivy Flietoor near Centurion on 10 May last year.

He said he felt "very bad" about what he did and asked the court and his victim's family for forgiveness.

"I must say it was just a spur of the moment thing. I didn't plan it. I was devil possessed.

"I feel very bad about what I've done, which is why I pleaded guilty. I would like to apologise to the court and the family of the deceased because I did not know the woman and she did not know me.

"It was the first time I'd done this kind of thing. I'm remorseful," Nyaba testified.

Nyaba admitted he had picked up his victim near Midrand that night and agreed to take her home, but instead took her to some open veld near Centurion where he first robbed her of her cellphone, then raped her and bludgeoned her to death with a brick.

Her body was found in the veld the next day. She had died of blunt force injuries to the head.

Nyaba said in a statement he had stopped and demanded Flietoor's cellphone shortly after she spoke to someone on the phone, saying she was on her way home.

He had grabbed her when she put the cellphone in her bra and refused to give it to him.

"I started fighting with her because I became angry.

"... She grabbed me and she injured me on my nose... I became angry... I grabbed her on the neck and pushed her down and started raping her.

"... When she stood up she grabbed my clothes and I kicked her feet, causing her to fall. When I realised that she was becoming angry, aggressive, was making noise and had stood up, I took a stone and hit her with it.

"... When she started screaming I hit her three times with the brick on the face and she fell. Then I threw the brick at her.

"... When I left her there she was still alive," he said.

Nyaba testified in mitigation that he was raised by a family member after his mother died, but had left school after standard five because of the way in which his uncles and aunt treated him.

He admitted in cross-examination that he had his first clash with the law at the age of 13, when he was convicted of rape, followed by a string of further convictions which ended with a stint in jail.

He agreed with prosecutor Andre Fourie that he had no respect for other people's property, dignity and lives, but insisted his previous crimes were committed while he was unemployed.

Sapa

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