MEDICAL intern stationed at Katutura Intermediate Hospital is remaining in police custody after making a first court appearance on a rape charge involving a young patient at the hospital.
Medical graduate Dennis Iipumbu Noa (26) is due to apply for bail with his scheduled return to the Windhoek Magistrate’s Court in Katutura on Monday next week.
This was relayed to magistrate Johannes Shuuveni when Noa made his first appearance in court on a count of rape yesterday.
Noa is charged with having raped an 18-year-old patient at Katutura Intermediate Hospital on Sunday.
The patient is alleged to have been raped after he had been booked out of the hospital’s head injury ward by Noa, where he is being treated.
The regional commander of the police in Khomas, commissioner Ismael Basson, yesterday said the patient is in hospital after suffering a brain injury in a road accident.
Basson said unused condoms were found in the patient’s bed after he had last been seen with Noa. Indications that the patient had been sexually assaulted were found when he was physically examined, Basson added.
In the charge against Noa, the state is alleging that he raped the patient by sodomising him while the patient was affected by a physical disability or other inability rendering him incapable of understanding the nature of the sexual act or communicating unwillingness to take part in the act.
Executive director of health and social services Ben Nangombe said in a media statement on Tuesday that “an incident of indecent assault” had been reported at a health facility in the Khomas region.
He said the Namibian Police were informed and are investigating the matter.
“The reported incident is of a serious nature and is being dealt with as such,” Nangombe stated, while appealing for the privacy of the patient and his family to be respected “in light of this horrible ordeal”.
Shuuveni ordered that Noa should remain in police custody after public prosecutor Filemon Nyau informed him that the state objected to the granting of bail to him.
Nyau said this was due to the seriousness of the charge, because the investigation of the matter is in an early stage, the fear that Noa could flee if released, and because it would not be in the public interest or the interest of the administration of justice for him to be granted bail.
On a request from lawyer Janike McLeod, who represented Noa, the magistrate also directed that he should be held at Seeis Police Station east of Windhoek.
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