Baby Jordan: Delay disappoints
29/01/2007 12:40  - (SA)  

Want to know more? Answerit can help.

Baby joy for Jordan's mom Baby joy for Jordan's mom Judge says Dina a flight risk Judge says Dina a flight risk Dina denied bail Dina denied bail Dina 'could be acquitted' Dina 'could be acquitted' Judge angry at Dina-trial twist Judge angry at Dina-trial twist Baby Jordan 'killer' to testify Baby Jordan 'killer' to testify New defence team in Dina trial New defence team in Dina trial

Cape Town - The baby Jordan murder trial on Monday was unexpectedly postponed for two weeks, to the disappointment of a packed public gallery which had expected one of the accused to spill the beans on his fellows.

The postponement, the umpteenth delay in the marathon trial, was due to the appointment only last week of an extra lawyer in the case.

Dina Rodrigues, the alleged mastermind of the June 2005 killing of baby Jordan-Leigh Norton, is in the dock with Sipho Mfazwe, Mongezi Bobotyane, Zanethemba Gwada and a youth who may not be named.

It is alleged that Rodgrigues hired her co-accused to murder the infant in order to save the father of the baby, her then-lover Neil Wilson, the financial burden of maintenance payments.

Hopefully the last postponement

At Monday's hearing, before judge Basheer Waglay, counsel Emile de Villiers announced that he had only just been appointed to represent Bobotyane.

Originally, all four male accused were represented by one advocate, but after a surprise indication that the youth might testify against the others, new advocates had to be appointed.

Advocate Mornay Calitz was then hired to represent Bobotyane along with Mfazwe and Gwada, but a conflict of interests subsequently compelled him to withdraw as Bobotyane's lawyer.

This in turn forced the belated appointment of De Villiers for Bobotyane.

De Villiers told the court he had 3000 pages of High Court record of the case thus far to peruse, as well as the record of the magistrate's court bail hearing.

He said he received instructions only last Wednesday from the Legal Aid Board.

The judge said he had no choice but to allow the postponement.

He said he had during the many delays in the case requested all to be ready at previous resumptions only to have to postpone the case again due to circumstances beyond his control.

He said he hoped this would be the final postponement and that the case would get seriously underway when it resumed on February 12.

All four accused are in custody.

- SAPA

What is this? Yahoo Digg Del.icio.us Facebook Brought to you by OUTsurance Car Insurance
	News24 Headlines on your Facebook profile		News24 on mobile