First statement not admissable

2003-02-04 22:49

Bloemfontein - The first statement the alleged killer of a young mother made shortly after taking police to her dumped body may not be used in his trial as evidence against him, the Bloemfontein High Court ruled on Tuesday.

Judge President JP Malherbe ruled in a trial within a trial that the statement, made before a magistrate after six hours of police interrogation, was not admissible.

The court was earlier told that this first statement was a totally different version by accused Bernard Cloete of the events surrounding Helen Else's death than that contained in his plead explanation.

Cloete testified that police assaulted him twice during the interrogation, intimidated and threatened him with assault throughout, refused him permission to talk to his parents at the police building where he was questioned, and deprived him of sleep and food.

Rights not immediately explained to him

He said his rights were only explained to him after he admitted after the six nightly hours of questioning that he knew where Else's body was.

Cloete told the magistrate before whom he had made the statement that he feared assault if he did not make the statement, although he denied that he was forced or threatened to make the statement.

He also testified that he was "panicking," "exhausted" and "petrified of being subjected to the same emotional trauma" of his earlier interrogation if he did not make the statement.

Malherbe ruled that it was also not in the interest of justice that Cloete's statement be allowed as evidence, even if it was found that it was obtained by violating Cloete's constitutional rights.

Police taken to body

Cloete was taken to the local magistrate's court on January 13 last year directly after guiding police officers to Else's badly decomposed and half-naked body.

He admitted to dumping her body in the veld next to a road near Bloemfontein after discovering her body on his double bed. He denied murdering her.

Large stains of her blood as well as her hair were found in Cloete's flat in a Bloemfontein suburb.

Else was allegedly murdered on New Year's morning last year after meeting Cloete and co-accused Loutjie Korb the previous evening at a dance club near Bloemfontein.

- SAPA