The clitoris collector: South Africa gripped by horror trial involving mutilation, murder and rape

A gun shop owner used a local anesthetic to numb women's genitals before removing their clitorides and storing them in his freezer, a court heard.

Dane Peter Frederiksen is facing 58 charges in South Africa, many of them relating to the collection of nine clitorides found individually bagged and marked in a kitchen appliance at his home in Bloemfontein.

On Friday Bloemfontein High Court heard that Frederiksen used Xylocaine, an anesthetic not registered in South Africa, before surgically mutilating the clitorides of nine women.

Police searched Frederiksen's house in September 2015 after his wife, Anna Matseliso Molise, reported that he had pierced and cut – though not removed – her clitoris when she was drunk.

Police found nine clirtorises in the freezer which they believe Frederiksen accumulated from women in nearby Lesotho, possibly paying them to undergo the amateur surgical procedure.

They were packaged in sealed bags with the details of each woman and the date of the operation written on the outside.

They also found anesthetics, surgical instruments and a diary documenting details of the "procedures" he used to obtain the body parts.

Pharmacologist Paulina van Zyl told the court there was no conceivable reason that an ordinary citizen would hold Xylocaine for personal use. It is a prescription only numbing agent.

In cross-examination, Frederiksen's lawyer said his client had imported the drug from Norway, where he was trained by two doctors to use the drug for piercings.

Earlier this week a nine-year-old Lesotho girl told the court via video link that she had been raped by Frederiksen. It is alleged that Frederiksen made a diary entry titled "Paedophile Pig" on one of the days he abused her. She did not have her genitals mutilated.

It was claimed that indecent pictures of that girl are among several criminal photos in Frederiksen's possession. He faces 18 charges of manufacturing child pornography.

After raising the alarm, his wife was shot dead outside her home in October 2015. On Thursday wheelchair-bound prisoner Motlatsi Moqeti told the court that Frederiksen had paid him around £2,000 to arrange a hit on his wife.

The trial continues.