Samuel Sidyno was convicted in the Pretoria High Court in August 2000 of seven counts of murder. The victims were two women and five boys or youths, and the killings took place in the Capital Park district of Pretoria within a period of less than three months, from late 1998 into January 1999. He had been released on parole in November 1998 and was arrested in January 1999. In September 2000 Judge Johan van der Westhuizen sentenced him to seven life terms and recommended that 40 years pass before parole was considered.
Sidyno was 37 when he was arrested in January 1999, according to the Mail & Guardian, and the same age was given when the trial opened in August 2000. His birthplace, family and childhood are not on record.
The Mail & Guardian reported on January 22, 1999, that he had been serving a sentence of four years and 90 days for rape, assault and robbery. He served three and a half years of it, and was released on parole in November 1998, nine months before the end of the sentence, after prison officials judged him fit for release. A spokesman for the Department of Correctional Services said he had earned his parole and had not been a problem in prison. During that imprisonment he had also been charged with assault.
The Mail & Guardian reported that police linked six killings in Pretoria to Sidyno, spread from December 1998 to January 6, 1999, and described the victims as a woman, two men in their late teens, a boy between 12 and 14, a second woman, and a sixth person whose sex was not stated. At the trial, the charges covered seven murders between November 1998 and January 1999, one more than the six police had counted in January.
Some of the victims were named at the trial in August 2000. Elizabeth Senwamadi was one of the two women. The other, whose surname was Ledwaba, was named in the first day's report as Kedibone and in the verdict report as Paulinah. The five others were boys or youths, two of them reported by name at the trial and three unidentified. No statement from the families is on record.
Police believed the killings were all committed by one man. The head of the Pretoria murder and robbery unit, Senior Superintendent Rudi van Olst, said in January 1999 that investigators were confident that Sidyno was linked to the murders, and that the arrest, made within 48 hours of the start of round-the-clock surveillance, was the fastest ever in an inquiry into serial killings. He cautioned that a great deal of investigation remained to be done.
Pretoria police arrested Sidyno roughly a day after he broke his parole conditions, in the days after January 5, 1999; the calendar date is not on record. Police said that he first denied any involvement and then confessed.
He appeared in court on murder charges, and the case was postponed to the end of February 1999.
The trial opened in the Pretoria High Court on or about August 8, 2000, before Judge Johan van der Westhuizen. Sidyno, then 37, pleaded not guilty to seven counts of murder, two of rape and two of robbery. The prosecutor was Christo Roberts. He told the court that Sidyno had been observed by psychiatrists and was found to be accountable for his actions. Sidyno said he was Afrikaans-speaking and did not need an interpreter.
On the first day he told the court that he knew nothing about the deaths of some of the victims. He also tried to raise an allegation of assault by police, and the judge told him he would be given a chance to do so later.
A central question was a statement he made to police. On Friday, August 18, the judge admitted notes of that statement as evidence. Sidyno had said police assaulted him and forced the statement; the court admitted it regardless.
On the Monday before the verdict, the judge rejected claims that Sidyno was mentally ill. On Wednesday, August 30, 2000, he found Sidyno guilty of seven counts of murder. The report of the verdict said the judge could not convict him of rape of the two women because there was "no positive evidence to the effect." A second report said the evidence on the rape counts was insufficient. He was also convicted on two counts of theft, one of them involving the property of one of the women.
Sidyno was not convicted of rape. The two rape counts related to the two women. The court found the evidence on them insufficient, and he was found not guilty. The convictions for the seven murders were not affected. He had been charged with two counts of robbery; the verdict was recorded as two convictions for theft.
An expert described Sidyno as a psychopath, and the judge said he could not be rehabilitated. On Tuesday, September 5, 2000, Judge van der Westhuizen imposed seven life terms for the murders and one year for theft. He recommended that 40 years should pass before parole was considered.
Whether Sidyno appealed, whether the 40-year recommendation was changed, and where he is held are not on record. The number of victims is given as seven in every account of the verdict and sentence, and no other killings are charged against him or attributed to him.
Accounts differ on the make-up of the victims. The first-day trial report named two women, two unidentified boys, a man called Oupa and two boys by name; the report of the confession ruling spoke of two women and five boys; the verdict report spoke of two women and five youths; the sentencing report spoke of "men and women." The conviction itself, on seven counts, is the same in all of them.
Before November 1998: serves three and a half years of a sentence of four years and 90 days for rape, assault and robbery.
November 1998: released on parole.
November 1998 to January 1999: the period of the seven murders as charged.
January 6, 1999: last of the killings police linked to him in January 1999.
January 1999: arrested in Pretoria; appears in court on murder charges, case postponed to the end of February.
Early August 2000: trial opens in the Pretoria High Court; he pleads not guilty.
Mid-August 2000: the court admits notes of his statement to police.
August 30, 2000: convicted of seven murders and two counts of theft; not found guilty of rape.
September 5, 2000: seven life terms and one year for theft; 40 years before parole recommended.