Crowd waiting for Liam

2005-10-12 15:11

Johannesburg - A crowd gathered outside 10-year-old Liam Aspeling's home in Ennerdale, south of Johannesburg, on Wednesday afternoon awaiting his safe return after a kidnapping ordeal.

Aspeling was snatched from a car outside his house while on his way to school early on Tuesday morning.

A friend of the family, Galieb Essop, told Sapa the family had received a call that he had been dropped off at a fruiterer and given a pizza.

"He is now on his way home," said Essop.

Police had cordoned off the road around the family's home in Vulcan Street. They remained inside, said a Sapa reporter on the scene.

Police said the boy was being debriefed at the Ennerdale police station and would soon be on his way to the house.

Among those waiting for him were many school children wearing the uniform of Aloe Ridge Primary, in nearby Walkerville, where Liam is a Grade 4 pupil.

"I prayed until I cried," school-friend Melory Gibson told Sapa.

Among the vehicles parked near the Aspeling house was an estate agent's car with Liam's photograph and investigation contact details on the window.

The boy's father, Vernon, has reportedly been under witness protection for two years pending his appearance as a State witness in a hijacking trial scheduled to start in the Cape High Court on Monday.

This is according to advocate William Booth, defence counsel for two of the 11 accused, brothers Selwyn and Virgil de Vries, both from Ennerdale.

The De Vries brothers, who were arrested last year and are in Goodwood Prison in Cape Town, have both pleaded not guilty of armed robberies involving R2.2m between June and October 2003.

Police have released identikits of two men wanted in connection with Liam's kidnapping.

- SAPA