Is the “Blue Light Stalker” hiding in plain sight in Durban? He is, say those who believe they have seen him in the city.
|||Is the “Blue Light Stalker” hiding in Durban? He is, say those who believe they have seen him in the city.
No, say the police, who believe he may have fled overseas.
Ismail Sheik was convicted for using his status as a police reservist to indecently assault women nightclubbers, but fled before serving his 21-year jail sentence.
Dubbed the Blue Light Stalker, Sheik, 42, of Clare Estate, went on the run on December 20, 2010.
He followed young women home from nightclubs, flashing a blue light. He threatened to arrest them for drunk driving if they did not perform sexual acts on him. Sheik was not asked to hand over his passport as part of his bail conditions.
He was given 72 hours to hand himself in to begin serving his sentence, but failed to do so.
“There have been no sightings of him recently. He is still evading arrest. He is either hiding out some place… or we assume he may have left the country using false documents,” a police source said.
The SAPS KZN media office did not respond to questions whether police had the will to find him.
But if the DA’s Dianne Kohler Barnard has her way, convicted criminals like Sheik will in future be fitted with ankle bracelets that tell the police where they are.
Kohler Barnard said last night the case had prompted her to compile a private member’s bill for submission to parliament before the end of the year. It will call for detainees to be tagged with electronic bracelets.
She said at many police stations she had visited, rape suspects had been allowed to walk out of police stations.
“As far as I know detectives literally searched for him for five years during his five-year reign of terror and they had a very tight case and he was found guilty. And then we had this bizarre situation where the magistrate said ‘go home and sort out your affairs and come back in two days’ and then he headed for the hills,” said Kohler Barnard.
- Independent on Saturday