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'Don't die in front of me'
08/11/2006 08:00 - (SA)
Llewellyn Prince, Die Burger
Cape Town - A schoolgirl from Oakdale, Bellville has described in detail how after an orgy of liquor and tik, her younger sister was shot dead next to her in a house in Belhar - and she was shot in the head minutes later.
Acting Judge André le Grange asked in the High Court on Tuesday that the girl's name should not be published because she is in a witness protection programme and there are fears for her safety.
Signs of a serious eye injury and a big scar between her eyes, which she hides with her long brown hair and sunglasses, bear silent testimony to the gruesome events involving the slightly built grade-8 girl and her late 15-year-old sister on Saturday July 24 2004.
Michael Paulse, 39, and Leslian Jansen, 32, pleaded not guilty to charges of drug dealing and possession, statutory rape, murder, attempted murder and the illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition.
Used to be in a children's home
The girl, who is guarded in court by heavily-armed police, said she and her sister met Paulse long before the shooting, at the Bellville taxi rank.
He was a taxi driver at the time and they had just been placed in the care of their parents, from the childen's home in Durbanville.
They visited the house in Belhar regularly in Paulse's company, where they used tik and liquor.
He and the younger sister had a relationship.
Jansen and the two other men, she said, sold drugs at the house for Paulse.
The day before the shooting the sisters went to the drugs house, when Paulse did not answer their phone calls.
They spent the night with Jansen and two men, using tik and drinking.
Paulse arrived on the Saturday morning. "Later that night we used drugs in the bedroom."
Paulse and her sister threw them out, because they wanted to have sex.
The girl said they returned to the room where Paulse and her sister were lying on cushions on the floor, and two men were lying on a bed next to them.
"I was lying with my back to them and I heard a shot ring out. When I looked around, the revolver was on my sister's chest. I looked at Paulse. His hand was on the revolver and her hand was on his."
She said they took her sister to a field opposite the house. Paulse wanted them to take her to hospital by train.
"I went down on my knees in front of her and begged her not to die in front of me. Paulse, who was standing behind me, pressed the gun against my head and said 'if you open your mouth, you're dead.' I promised to shut up". They took the deceased back inside.
Shortly afterwards, the body was moved back to the veld again.
I went and kneeled next to her. That was when Paulse shot me through the head, just above the left ear. I woke up in Tygerberg Hospital. The bullet shattered my skull
Advocate GF Murray for Paulse and Jansen will continue cross-examination on Wednesday.
- Die Burger
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