Judge Desai’s notable cases:  

Murder trial of Najwa Petersen, who was handed a 28-year prison sentence in 2009 for her role in the murder of her husband, music legend Taliep Petersen.  

Trial of 14-year-old Valencia Farmer’s killers. She was raped and stabbed 53 times in 1999.  

Desai led the post mortem investigation after former South African cricket captain Hansie Cronjé died in an airplane crash in 2002.