Anyone who was around at the time will remember one of the biggest criminal cases to come out of South Africa in the 1990s. The bodies of 22 sodomised young boys were found buried face down, in shallow graves. The Western Cape was gripped by the terror which sent one Norman ‘Afzal’ Simons to jail for 35 years.

According to murderpedia:

The “Station Strangler” is believed to have lured his victims away from train stations. Most were found in shallow graves around Cape Town after being sodomized and strangled. One body was found with a note that read: “One more, many more in store.” Elroy, his final victim, was last seen boarding a train with Simons at Cape Town’s Strand train station. His body was found 10 days later with his hands tied behind his back. According to police, Simons claimed his brother, who was murdered in 1991, was living inside him. He also he heard voices ordering him to kill. Apparently the voices started after his brother sodomized him.

But now families of victims have been stunned by an admission made by the prosecutor in that case, Mike Stowe, who called in to 567 Cape Talk radio. The topic was the upcoming parole of the Station Strangler. Simons was linked to the murders but was convicted only of the killing of nine-year-old Elroy van Rooyen.

But now it looks like they might have convicted the wrong man.

This, from timeslive:

“I have been listening with interest over the past week about the Simons case and I just want to say a few things,” said Stowe.

“We started off the case with the investigating officer telling us ‘We’ve got the guy.’ The case was thin and we had one eyewitness.

“She [the eyewitness] received a reward of R250000 but what was striking about her evidence was that she drew up an Identikit [picture] for the police and if you recall there was this Identikit of the Station Strangler in newspapers with a large wig or Afro,” he said.

Stowe said the picture of Simons the prosecution had did not match the Identikit picture.

He said it had been established that Simons was in a library in Claremont at 2.30pm on the day Elroy went missing and it was improbable he could have got to Strand railway station by 4pm.

He said no one testified to having seen either Elroy or Simons on a train. Simons was convicted on a confession he later withdrew.

“I believe that had Simons testified that he had been talking nonsense in the confession the trial would have had a much different outcome,” said Stowe.

The family of one of Simons’s former students, Neville Samaai, who was found dead in 1994, was shattered by Stowe’s admission.

His sister, Jean, said the real killer might still be on the loose.

“This is shocking. It pierces my heart,” she said. ” Why is he only saying this now?”

Jeez that’s radical.

Surely this guy should be arrested or something? Surely that’s against his ‘oath?’

Timelive chatted to forensic scientist David Klatzow, who said Stowe had failed in his duties by not telling Simons’s defence team about his concerns regarding the evidence.

His failure to do so was a dereliction of duty

Big time.

[source]