A suspected serial rapist dubbed the “Ice-cream Man” by cops was caught in a police operation in Atlantis.
The 50-year-old suspect from Mitchells Plain had allegedly been terrorising several communities for months.
Police say his modus operandi was to lure young women with a promise of a job into his pink and white ice-cream van and then spike their drinks before raping them.
On Friday when he was nabbed, police caught him with a victim in his van, along with condoms and date rape drugs.
Police said members of the Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences Unit conducted a tracing operation in Witsand on Friday.
Police spokesperson Warrant Officer Joseph Swartbooi said: “The complainant pointed at a man in a vehicle, indicating that he was the suspect in a rape case.
“The police members then stopped the vehicle and apprehended the driver.
“The 50-year-old man was arrested and detained on a charge of rape.”
Swartbooi said that, once charged, the suspect will make an appearance in the Atlantis Magistrate’s Court.
A media statement which has been circulating since Friday reads: “The suspect lures young girls, through offering them jobs and once the woman is in the Kombi, he drives around with them, gives them drinks which are spiked and then rapes them.
“On Friday at 12.45pm, one of the victims recognised the suspect and pointed him out to the FCS members. The team pulled him over and found in his vehicle another victim (woman) from Delft and also date rape drugs and condoms.
“The 50-year-old is an Egyptian foreigner from Mitchells Plain.”
The suspect had allegedly also preyed on victims in the Mfuleni area last October.
At the time, a woman whose relative managed to escape his clutches took to Facebook to warn others about the “Ice-cream Man”.
“You see, the ice-cream van likes to be here in Mfuleni. If the man offers you a job of working in the truck with him, don’t take it, walk away. Don’t even give him your phone number. This man once tried to kidnap my relative and he said to her that he has a job for her.
“The job would have required her to work in Mitchells Plain. She agreed and went with him. She said they never even reached Mitchells Plain, he went into the bushes with her, but she managed to escape unharmed. He had promised to pay her R1 700 per week, he lied. I am warning women to run when they see the man,” the post read.
Daily Voice