THE daring prison break, the celebrity girlfriend and the escape across borders had all the elements of a fictional thriller.
But in some ways that tempting description serves to glamorise and trivialise what South African rapist and murderer Thabo Bester actually did.
While many were open-mouthed after each revelation about how this man managed to flee prison and live undetected for a year, his victims saw it a different way.
It also exposed a stunning level of official incompetence.
One of the women he attacked spoke to the BBC on condition of anonymity.
Bester, known locally as the “Facebook rapist” for using the site to lure his victims, had pretended to be an agent who was going to help her find a job in television.
“Reading his stories in the news is bringing back a lot of triggering memories,” she said.
“The escape left me triggered and traumatised.
“My only prayer is that he stays in jail and doesn’t get a chance to hurt any more people.”
He was never convicted of her rape, but in 2011 Bester was found guilty of raping and robbing two women.
A year later he was sentenced to life in prison for the rape and murder of his then girlfriend, model Nomfundo Thyulu.
Bester went by many aliases and was a charming, charismatic smooth talker – a personality that got him what he wanted.
But behind the charm was a cunning career criminal, a dangerous and ruthless man.
“He’s a person who clearly doesn’t really feel much remorse and has gotten worse, not better over time,” clinical psychologist Dr Gerard Labuschagne, who first met Bester in 2011, told the BBC.
“The punishment [of prison] didn’t have the effect that I guess we would like it to have had upon him.”
Dr Labuschagne interviewed Bester while working at the police’s profiling department.
He said that even 12 years ago Bester showed indications of “impression management”. He was manipulative, never fully taking responsibility for his crimes, even as he pleaded guilty.
After the conviction many in South Africa forgot about him, until the news that the man who once preyed on desperate women, enticing them with promises of job opportunities, was back living among the free.
Confirmation of his daring escape made headlines last month.
“He’s gotten worse in terms of his criminal behaviours,” Dr Labuschagne said.
“There’s something with his personality that is very different to the rest of us, and that’s never going to change.”
