Waterkloof 4: Body ID query

2004-11-29 22:02

Pretoria - The defence advocate in the trial of four Waterkloof youths in the Pretoria regional court suggested on Monday that a dead man found in Moreletta Park and the one they had allegedly attacked there might not be the same person.

Advocate Jaap Cilliers said that several incidents that state witnesses had earlier testified about could not be compatible to the body pathologist Dr Alida Elizabeth van der Hoven had examined.

Christoff Becker, Frikkie du Preez, Gert van Schalkwyk and Reinach Tiedt earlier denied that they had murdered a man in Moreletta Park.

Van der Hoven testified that the body she examined, found in Moreletta Park, had two head wounds and one in the right thigh.

The head wounds were consistent with injuries caused by blunt instruments, like a kick, a stick or a hammer.

The stab wound in the back of the man's thigh was deep and penetrated the muscle to the bone. This caused severe blood loss and the man's death.

Kicked

The court told her earlier evidence alleged that Du Preez had kicked the victim in the face with his heavy shoes, known as Bronx shoes. These shoes apparently had steel tips.

Van der Hoven said if it was a fast, hard kick, it could have caused the bleeding underneath the man's skull.

Cilliers said during cross-examination an orthopaedist told him a severe kick by such shoes would have caused serious facial injuries. Yet Van der Hoven had not noticed such injuries.

"It seems that the body you have examined is not the one of the man who was kicked like that," he stated.

The pathologist agreed that the kicks explained to her were not reflected on the body she had seen.

The advocate then said if a person bled to death, almost four litres of blood would have been lost. This body was bled empty, yet there was not much blood on the scene.

'Abattoir'

Van der Hoven replied that such a scene would not necessary look like an "abattoir", but the deceased's clothes were soaked with blood.

Cilliers also noted that the deceased did not have any bruises or other injuries than those she had testified about.

However, if a person had been kicked and trampled on as the state witnesses had alleged, there would have been such markings on the body.

He added that head wounds bled a lot, yet the deceased's wound was almost bloodless.

Van der Hoven agreed, but said it depended on the force and violence used during an attack.

Cilliers further argued that the amount of blood on the scene, as shown on photographs, was not consistent with a scenario where someone was injured on a scene and left there to bleed to death.

He added that the wound to the thigh was bigger than one caused by a steak knife, as the court earlier heard.

He said it could have been caused by someone who fell while climbing over a palisade fence.

Van der Hoven agreed that this was possible.

- SAPA