A university student who was kidnapped, gang-raped and murdered in South Africa, neither cried nor shouted during the brutal sexual assault, one of her attackers claimed in court.
Hannah Cornelius, 21, was carjacked by four men while dropping off fellow student Cheslin Marsh, 22, at his home in Stellenbosch, west of Cape Town, after a night out in May 2017.
Geraldo Parsons, 27, Vernon Witbooi, 33, Nashville Julius, 29, and Eben van Niekerk, 28 allegedly robbed and assaulted Mr Marsh and left him for dead, before brutally raping and murdering Ms Cornelius.
Parsons told Western Cape Court this week, that Ms Cornelius had bargained with them in a desperate bid for survival, agreeing that they could have sex with her – as long as they did not hurt her and let her go afterwards.
Murdered: Hannah Cornelius, 21, was raped and murdered in Stellenbosch, South Africa, after she and her friend were carjacked by four men
Confession: Geraldo Parsons, 27, told a court in Western Cape, South Africa, that Hannah Cornelius, 21, did not shout or cry while she was being brutally raped by him and his friends before they murdered her
Making a full confession to the charges of rape, murder, kidnap and robbery, Parsons broke down in tears as he claimed he had not wanted to rape Ms Cornelius as he had a girlfriend and young children, but that he ‘did it anyway’.He claimed Ms Cornelius ‘did not scream or fight when they raped her,
parsons was asked to explain the scratches and abrasions which had been found on his face upon his arrest, which he could not.
Ms Petersen tweeted from the court room that Parsons had also been questioned about ‘plastic pearls’ in his penis – a type of body modification.
Parsons claimed the genital decorations would be ‘his privacy’, but later bizarrely added it ‘was part of his Jewish religion’, according to Ms Petersen.
Parsons told the court that the quartet had only intended to steal Ms Cornelius’ car after spotting it outside Mr Marsh’s block of flats and that the incident spiralled after they saw the two students still inside.
Confession: Parsons, 27, second from left, broke down in tears on Wednesday, as he admitted to raping and murdering Ms Cornelius, implicating his co-accused Vernon Witbooi, 33, Nashville Julius, 29, and Eben van Niekerk, 28
‘Vernon said Hannah said we can have sex with her but then we must leave her after that,’ Parsons said according to Times Live, describing the look of terror in Ms Cornelius’ eyes.
He described how he was the first to rape Ms Cornelius, before Witbooi and then van Niekerk.
‘She didn’t want to climb out of the boot. She was holding on to the car. She started panicking. Eben came up and stabbed her. I let her go as the blood started to spill.’
‘Then I saw Vernon arrive with a rock. I told Vernon “don’t kill her, we’ve already killed Cheslin, let’s leave her”. But Vernon threw the rock on Hannah’s head.’
Last week, state pathologist Dr Deidre Abrahams told the court that the violence against her skull was so brutal it would have killed her instantly.
‘The skull is made of very strong bones. It is not easy for a skull to break or crack, unless a lot of power is used to break the skull,’ state pathologist Dr Deidre Abrahams told Western Cape High Court on Tuesday.
Describing the sexual assault, Dr Abrahams told the court it ‘would have been a very painful experience to the person,’ according to News24.
Both the trauma to the head and the stab-wound in Ms Cornelius’ neck were fatal.
However Dr Abrahams concluded that the blunt violence which cracked her skull is the most likely cause of death.
Prosecutors claim the four men surrounded Ms Cornelius’ VW Golf, put a screwdriver to her chest through the open window and put a knife to the back of Mr Marsh and threatened to kill him.
mr Marsh was robbed of cash and his phone and locked in the car boot and then the four men drove to a drug dealer’s home to buy drugs and smoked crystal meth.
Ms Cornelius was ordered into the back seat before they drove out of Stellenbosch and pulled over near a local vineyard.