A Danish national at the centre of one of South Africa’s most disturbing criminal cases has been sentenced to life imprisonment after police discovered human remains, including clitoral tissue, stored in a freezer at his home in Bloemfontein.
Peter Frederiksen, a former gun shop owner from Denmark, was arrested on 17 September 2015 after police raided his residence in Langenhoven Park, Free State.
The arrest followed mounting suspicions over alleged sexual offences involving women from Lesotho.
Inside the house, investigators made a chilling discovery. A domestic freezer contained multiple packages of female genital tissue.
Court evidence later confirmed the presence of 21 clitorises, each individually packaged and labelled. Police also recovered surgical tools, anaesthetics, and equipment believed to have been used in unlawful procedures.
The findings triggered a major investigation that quickly widened beyond the freezer. Prosecutors alleged that Frederiksen drugged and sexually assaulted women before carrying out mutilation procedures without medical authorisation. The victims were said to have been lured from Lesotho.
Authorities further linked Frederiksen to a wider pattern of serious crimes, including rape, fraud, illegal possession of firearms, possession and production of child pornography, and conspiracy to commit murder.
The murder conspiracy charge was tied to the killing of his estranged wife, who was shot dead in Lesotho while Frederiksen was already under investigation.
Prosecutors argued that he had arranged the killing through intermediaries. He denied the allegation throughout the trial.
In court, Frederiksen maintained that the women had consented to medical procedures.
However, prosecutors rejected this, arguing that the acts were carried out through deception, coercion, and without lawful medical oversight.
The court was also shown diaries, photographs, and written notes said to support claims of repeated abuse and control.
The trial heard testimony from witnesses who described being drugged and assaulted. Some said they lost consciousness after being given alcohol or sedatives, only to wake up injured and disoriented.
In November 2017, the Free State High Court convicted Frederiksen on 36 charges, including rape, child pornography offences, fraud, and conspiracy to commit murder.
The court acquitted him on some charges linked specifically to the removal of human tissue, citing gaps in South African law at the time.
However, the remaining convictions were considered serious enough to warrant heavy punishment.
In March 2018, Frederiksen was sentenced to two life terms for rape and conspiracy to commit murder, plus an additional 52 years for other offences.
The court described the crimes as calculated, violent, and deeply damaging to the victims.
He was also declared unfit to possess firearms, and his name was placed on the national sex offenders register. The National Prosecuting Authority said the sentence reflected the seriousness of the crimes and the need to protect vulnerable communities.
The case remains one of the most notorious involving a foreign national in South Africa. It continues to be cited in discussions on gender-based violence, trafficking, and gaps in laws dealing with human tissue offences.