Nurse in court for raping a dying patient

Johannesburg - A nurse accused of raping a dying, paralysed cancer patient in the National Hospital in Bloemfontein in October 2011 appeared in the Free State High Court on Tuesday.

The patient, Magda Lombard, aged 51 at the time of the crime, died in the Bloemfontein Medi Clinic a month afterwards, Beeld reported on Wednesday.

According to the deceased woman's sworn statement, read out in court by investigating officer Arlene Snyman, the accused, Michael Moema, 33, came into her room with another nurse, Janette Kgoame, and sexually assaulted her.

Kgoame allegedly helped Moema position Lombard to allow him to penetrate her, and later placed a hand over her mouth, to prevent her from making a noise.

"The woman told me to be quiet," Lombard said in her statement, which was given to police Captain Francois Laux two days after the attack.

At the time of the assault, she had been paralysed from the waist down for over a year.

She told Laux that although she could not physically feel the sexual assault, she could see what was happening, and identified Moema from a number of photographs shown to her.

At the time, Kgoame refused to make a statement, and said she would testify for Moema.

The trial continues.