Judge traumatised by burglary

2003-05-08 18:38

Cape Town - Cape High Court judge Siraj Desai took the witness stand in the Cape Town Regional Court on Thursday to tell of the trauma he, his family and an employee experienced when their home was burgled in June last year.

The most frightening part about the daylight break-in was the "chilling efficiency" of it, Desai told Magistrate Judy Naidoo.

Naidoo postponed the case to May 29, when she is to pass sentence on Shamiel Mallick for housebreaking and theft as well as attacking the judge's domestic worker with a pair of scissors.

The case was referred to Naidoo's court after the original magistrate, Johnny Vermeulen, recused himself earlier on Thursday.

Vermeulen stood down after Desai, in a television interview in April, criticised Vermeulen over the many postponements in the case and the manner in which he had conducted the trial.

The judge told the court on Thursday that he suspected Mallick had either "cased" his University Estate home before the burglary, or had found no one home when he knocked on the front door.

From the lightning speed of the burglary, which left the house in disarray, Mallick must have known what he wanted and where to look for it, the judge said.

Neighbourhood 'held hostage'

Judge Desai told the court the trauma of the incident for himself, his family and his neighbourhood persisted.

His neighbourhood was still being held hostage by criminals who abused drugs.

He told the court: "This is not just a housebreaking case - it has caused us all persistent trauma. The neighbourhood is held hostage by housebreakers because it happens every day and they are never caught."

Among the items stolen was a special watch his wife had given him as a wedding gift.

Judge Desai told the court the watch was later found in the possession of a drug merchant.

He added: "I have not used the watch again - and will not - knowing it has been with a drug merchant."

Of the burglary itself, the judge said: "It is a traumatic invasion of one's privacy of life; one's personal life is shattered.

"It was the most frightening thing of my life - my children could have been at home when it occurred, and I shudder at the thought of what might have happened."

- SAPA