HE MUST BE FOUND

The victim of Facebook rapist Thabo Bester tells of her trauma at his escape

- NASIFA SULAIMAN, NOKUTHULA ZWANE-EJIKE AND MELON RADEBE

SHE was scrolling through the news on her phone when a picture of a familiar face popped up. An uneasy feeling washed over her as she clicked the link – and when it opened, her stomach dropped.

The man who’s now one of South Africa’s most wanted criminals had escaped from prison and all her memories came flooding back.

She thought Thabo Bester (39), the so-called Facebook Rapist, had died in a fire in his cell – but he was alive and well and on the run.

Bester’s modus operandi had been to lure attractive young women on Facebook with promises of modelling contracts – but instead, he robbed and raped them. One he even killed.

He used aliases, including that of Thomas Bester, which was the name Iris Monthso* (now 32) knew him by.

She met him in 2011 when she was a BCom marketing student at the University of Johannesburg with aspirations of being a singer and actress. He invited her on a three-day trip to Durban, telling her he was part of a panel who’d be auditioning young people for parts in a music show and Iris was hooked.

“I was a naïve 21-year-old and I believed him,” Iris tells YOU. “I’m reliving this now. He played on my dreams.”

Three journalism students went on the trip to cover the auditions for the student publication and Bester checked into a guesthouse in Umhlanga with them.

Iris says she was given something to drink and soon afterwards felt ill and faint. “Then he took me to his room. He laid me on the bed, kissed me and had his hands all over me. While he was on top of me he said, ‘I’m going to take good care of you’.”

Fortunately, Iris managed to push him off and fled the room. “I ran for my life.”