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Girlfriend 'didn't go to cells'
06/05/2008 18:22 - (SA)
Grahamstown - A murdered policeman's girlfriend denied on Tuesday in the Grahamstown High Court that she had been taken by detectives to see the two men accused of her partner's murder while they were held in custody.
Bakhulule Ngwala-Ngwala, 20, and Siyabonga Jim, 19, of Lingelihle, Cradock appeared before Judge Jeremy Pickering and an assessor.
The two have pleaded not guilty to the murder of police Inspector Bazil Quilie, 38, on October 10 last year at Michausdal, Cradock.
Quilie was stabbed 38 times with homemade knives as he and his girlfriend Marilyn Volmink were leaving a tavern late that evening.
Volmink, who has previously given evidence on events as a witness to her boyfriend's murder, was recalled by the state after the accused claimed she was brought by detectives to the cells where they were being held shortly after their arrest.
Questioned by senior state advocate Glenn Turner, Volmink denied she had gone to the police station cells with the detectives who were investigating her partner's murder.
"That is simply not true, I did not even know the two accused men until I saw them here in the courtroom," she said.
Volmink previously told the court that two men had attacked Quilie, one from the front and the other from behind, stabbed him repeatedly, as she screamed for help.
She said she had fled from the scene and had tried to call the police on her cellphone but did not have any airtime.
The alleged murder weapons were displayed on the evidence table in the well of the court. The homemade knife was about 45cm in length, and the other was one half of a sheep-shearing blade with a bandage wrapped around the handle.
Turner requested that the trial be postponed until Wednesday in order for the state to call a forensic analyst to determine whether the blood found on the knives was that of an animal or human.
In their plea explanation the pair claimed they had killed a springbok on the day of Quilie's murder, and it was the animal's blood.
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