‘Facebook rapist’ Thabo Bester found dead in S.Africa’s prison

South African criminal ‘Thabo Bester’ who is also known as “the Facebook rapist” because of how he used his social media platform to attract his victims, has been found dead in his prison, as per the prison reports. 

On Tuesday, the correctional services department confirmed Thabo Bester’s death at the Mangaung Correctional Centre in Bloemfontein around 03:35 am. 

According to DCS spokesperson Singabakho Nxumalo’, “his cell had been on fire, and he had sustained some burn wounds.”

Later, Nxumalo stated that an investigation is still on in order to examine whether the fire was started purposefully. 

Neither suicide nor stormy play was ruled out.

“He was found at about 03:35 this [Tuesday] morning, where his cell was burnt; he was found on the floor,” said Mr Nxumalo.”

Thabo Bester was first sentenced for raping and robbing two aspirant models whom he first approached, pretending to be a model scout. 

In a separate trial, he was sentenced for the 2012 robbery and murdering a third woman, Nomfundo Tyhulu. 

He claimed that the two of them were in a long-distance relationship, and he killed her when she came to meet him, robbing her of her items and leaving her body in a Cape Town guest house. 

He committed all these crimes when he was 22 or 23. 

He was first convicted of raping and robbing two women in October 2011, and during his trial, he burst into tears in the Durban magistrate’s court while he was explaining what made him commit these crimes. 

Speaking in mitigation of his punishment, he told the court he had been raped by his grandmother’s friend when he was young, raped many times by a man who promised to look after him, and was gang-raped in jail.

He further said that he told all the incidents to his grandmother, but it was the same as you are talking to a wall. 

” My grandmother’s friend hurt me when he raped me, and I had an operation on my behind.”

When his grandmother died, the problem became worse, and he forcefully had to live with his friends in a homesteader camp. 

While living there, he was approached for help by a man who promised to take care of him, but who had then locked him in his house for days and raped him.

Bester informed the court the hardships he encountered forced him to commit a crime.

He stated I resorted to crime to support myself. It is just like either you die or make a plan.

He was also found guilty of fraud in 2009 and faced a conviction of six months with an option of paying an R1,500 fine. 

“I did not have enough money to pay. They mistreated me in jail because they thought I was from a well-off family.”

He had been going through a gang-raped. A bottle with soapy water was inserted into his anus when he was in prison. 

The reports of his prison were also presented in court, in which it was clearly mentioned about his prison abuse, but not the rapes. 

I know I have done several terrible things, but this is not what I am. I want a second chance to put things in the right manner, he said.