HE'S BACK BEHIND BARS

Jessica Louwrens found out her rapist was roaming free and fought to see him back in prison

- PECULIA MUSHWANA

HER blood ran cold when she saw her rapist – the man who was supposed to be serving a 10-year sentence in prison – standing near her in the queue at home affairs in Chatsworth, Durban.

Simone Kanayee was frozen in place at the sight of her abuser, her uncle John-Daniel Premakaram.

Just two years ago the 77-year-old had been jailed for raping and sexually assaulting Simone and her cousin Jessica Louwrens – Premakaram’s own daughter.

Simone (36) told a home affairs official the man who was meant to be behind bars was walking around free as a bird. When the official confronted him he said he was out on parole.

“I was scared and shocked – I don’t even know how to explain my emotions,” Simone tells us over the phone from her Durban home. “It was overwhelming.”

“I had to call Jess and let her know. She was horrified and confused and kept asking if I was sure of what I was saying.”

Jessica (52) and Simone found out Premakaram had been released after serving just two years of his sentence and the cousins set out to get answers.

They learnt he’d applied for medical parole on 13 October 2023 and had been released three days later.

Officials refused to disclose his medical condition. “They said it would violate his human rights,” Jessica tells YOU when we visit her at her home in Johannesburg. But what about her human rights? she adds. “We were never consulted or contacted about his release.”

Jessica and Simone then began a nearly year-and-a-half-long campaign to get her father’s parole revoked.

At first it seemed impossible as their letters to the department of correctional service were ignored, but when they went public about their case several non-government organisations supporting gender-based violence prevention stepped in to help.