RESIDENTS of Karasburg, located at the southern tip of Namibia, are still coming to terms with the brutal act of a local mortuary attendant who they suspect of having sex with a corpse over the festive season.

Karasburg Mayor Julius Kalopa told Informanté that the victim had been an employee of the Municipality of Karasburg for over 20 years.
Kalopa revealed that Municipality staff, the victim’s family and local residents were still coming to grips with the horrific incident in which Van Hendricks, a 30-year-old morgue attendant, is alleged to have had sexual intercourse with the corpse of a 44 year-old woman on December 23.
Kapola said Karasburg residents had never heard of such a perverted act, and expressed grief that whilst the victim’s family were mourning the tragic death of a loved one following a horrific road accident, salt was added to wound by defiling the corpse.
“The residents of this town are shocked at what happened. It’s the first time such a thing has happened,” he said.
“We are calling for calm as the arm of the law takes its course.”
Sources close to the family revealed that up until her death the victim, a former employee at the Municipality of Karasburg, had lived with her daughter and boyfriend. Police are however withholding their names, as police investigations are still underway. 
A co-worker of Hendrick’s revealed to Informanté that the suspect, “Behaves normally, but technically, you may say that he sick in the head.”
Karasburg Acting Regional Commander confirmed that police had arrested Hendricks and charged him with “violation of a dead body” (CR 48/12/08).
Consulting Forensic Psychiatrist Stephen Hucker from the University of Toronto explains that people who have sexual intercourse with corpses suffer from a disease called ‘necrophilia’.
Necrophilia is described as sexual arousal stimulated by a dead body. The stimulation can be either in the form of fantasy or actual physical sexual contact with a corpse.
According to Hucker, the criteria for necrophilia is the presence, over a period of at least six months of recurrent and intense urges with sexually arousing fantasies involving corpses, which are either acted upon or have been markedly distressing.
He explains that treatment of the individual includes assessment for associated psychopathology, which is treated accordingly.
Treatment for necrophilia typically includes cognitive therapy, use of sex-drive reducing medications, and assistance with improving social and sexual relations.
In a rare online blog dubbed ‘Sickiphelia’, necrophiliacs from around the world share and discuss their undying fantasies of having sexual intercourse with dead bodies, as well as feelings of displeasure over being intimate with the living.
According to an expert at the Legal Assistance Centre, Necrophilia is not a statutory offence in Namibia and since no specific legislation covers the act, it is rather treated as a common law crime with no minimum sentence.
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