Crook accused 'framed'

2005-02-23 04:07

Cape Town - Murdered eight-year-old Sasha-Leigh Crook was probably the victim of a vengeful drug lord seeking payment for debt, the Cape High Court was told on Tuesday.

"We believe with respect that my client has been framed," said advocate Dirk Uijs, who is appearing for Moegamat Isaacs, the man accused of killing and raping Sasha-Leigh.

Uijs made the claim in an unexpected statement at the start of the second day of Isaacs' trial, saying it was the result of "certain information" his instructing attorney had received.

He said Isaacs was prepared to place on record that at the time Sasha-Leigh disappeared from her grandparents' home in July 2003, he had a drug problem.

Isaacs lived next door to the grandparents.

"As a consequence of his drug problem he got into debt with drug dealers, a particular drug dealer," Uijs said.

He was not going to disclose the name of the dealer at this stage, as Isaacs feared for his life.

In the wrong place

The dealer had demanded Isaacs pay the money owed "and threatened if he did not pay the money his family would be harmed".

"My client at the time did not think that matters were that serious.

"But it appeared to my client, myself and my instructing attorney that the little girl in question, Sasha-Leigh, was tragically in the wrong place at the wrong time.

"She may have been snatched, abducted, possibly in order to scare my client into paying money, but in furtherance of the threat that his family would be harmed."

Uijs said Isaacs and his legal team thought the person who snatched Sasha-Leigh was one of those who had threatened him.

'Special treatment'

Uijs asked presiding judge Tandaswa Ndita to order, for Isaacs' safety, that he continue to be held in the single cell in Goodwood Prison where he is currently being detained.

He also asked that arrangements be made that he not be transported to the court in a truck with other prisoners.

Prosecutor Christoffel van der Vijver said Isaacs was already being brought in under escort of the bullet-proof-jacketed area crime combat unit.

"There is special treatment if I may use that term for Mr Issacs," he said. "At least as far as the transport is concerned he should be safe."

Ndita issued the order Uijs asked for.

'Filling the gaps'

One of the two witnesses heard on Tuesday was Sasha-Leigh's grandfather, Michael Heneke, who testified that he and his wife noticed the little girl was missing at 14:30.

He knew this was the time because he looked at the kitchen clock, he said.

Heneke denied Uijs' suggestion that he was adapting his evidence "to fill the gaps left by your wife".

At one point, when Uijs accused him of manufacturing a "third story", Sasha-Leigh's mother Michelle stormed angrily out of court.

The case continues on Wednesday.

- SAPA