Waterkloof: Witnesses 'lying'

2005-03-16 20:34

Pretoria - One of four Waterkloof youths accused of murdering a homeless man and assaulting another with the intent to do grievous bodily harm, has accused the State's witnesses of lying.

They had "lied about a lot of things", Christoff Becker, 19, told Pretoria regional court on Wednesday.

This was after State advocate Johan Kruger pointed out several sentences in the court records where the witnesses made claims with which Becker disagreed.

Becker could not explain why his defence counsel Jaap Cilliers had not challenged the contradictions, telling the court he had told Cilliers his version of events.

Becker has admitted that he and co-accused Frikkie du Preez, Gert van Schalkwyk and Reinach Tiedt, and the State witnesses attacked a man in a park in Moreleta Park, but only because they thought he was a burglar.

They "lightly" assaulted him, he told the court, insisting his was not the body found there later by police.

'Influenced by police presentation'

"We wanted to help the police. But we became scared," Becker testified previously.

According to him, they chased the man - one of three alleged burglars - after a police presentation at Waterkloof Hoërskool urging pupils to keep their eyes and ears open for crime.

Becker said he had not phoned the police about the burglars because they were entering the park when he arrived there.

"They would have been gone by the time the police arrived," he explained.

He had wanted to catch the burglars and then phone police from his car. He would not have taken the burglars to the police station, as they might have been dangerous, he told the court.

"You feared they might be dangerous, yet you drop Gert (van Schalkwyk) off at the park alone?" asked Kruger.

Becker maintained he and his friends had wanted merely to help the police - and that their actions could have been influenced by adrenaline, too.

He denied Kruger's contention that the adrenaline he was talking about arose from an intention to assault black people.

Becker testified that he took two knives from his car for self-protection, but tossed one away while running off after he and his friends kicked the alleged burglar, as his mother had taught him not to run with a knife in his hand.

"It's not that there was blood on the knife or anything. I didn't stab the man.

Tried to get rid of evidence - lawyer

"I also ran because I was worried about the car. My dad would kill me if something happened to his car," Becker testified.

Kruger said: "You threw away the knife as you thought you might have injured the man and did not want any evidence that could link you to the incident."

Becker responded that he had reacted that way on realising how "stupid" he had been.

He also explained that he had lied about events in a phone call to police afterwards as he had been scared they would find out he had been driving without a licence.

- SAPA