Phone reported stolen day Chanelle died
2012-02-15 22:46
Pretoria - The estranged husband of Chanelle Henning, who was shot dead in an apparent drive-by shooting in Faerie Glen, reported his phone stolen on the day of her murder, the Pretoria Magistrate's Court heard on Wednesday.
Cellphone forensic analyst Francois Moller was giving testimony in a bail application by Andre Gouws, who is accused of arranging Henning's murder.
Moller said all records on Gouws' handset detailing calls between him and Henning's husband Nico prior to the murder had been deleted.
The court heard that Nico, had started a using a second number after reporting his phone stolen on the day of the murder.
Moller said there was no record of calls from this number on Gouws' handset after the murder, and there was no "successful communication" between the two.
Earlier, he told the court there had been 55 calls between former Nigerian Olympic athlete Ambrose Monye, accused of hiring the killers, and Gouws.
Monye made another 34 calls which Gouws ignored. Gouws phoned Monye 26 times in the month before November 8, the day Chanelle Henning was shot dead.
Henning was shot dead by two men on a motorbike after dropping off her child at a nursery school in Faerie Glen.
Calls to Monye had also been deleted, but cellphone records had shown the deleted call records.
He testified that cellphone towers placed Gouws near Chanelle Henning's home a number of times prior to the murder.
Custody battle
On three occasions, closed circuit television (CCTV) footage showed a Ford Bantam bakkie with reflective tape on its roll bars and a blue motorcycle with a dark windscreen.
Police seized a similar bakkie and bike from Gouws' home in Centurion.
Moller conceded under cross examination that the registration plates of both could not be seen in the CCTV footage. The driver or rider could also not be identified from the footage.
Moller said Gouws had no bank account in his own name, but on the day of the murder a withdrawal of R44 000 was made from the Andre Gouws family trust account in Centurion.
This was done about three hours after Henning was gunned down.
Moller said cellphone billing records indicated that Gouws's cellphone had moved from Centurion to Brooklyn and then to the Pretoria CBD before heading back to Centurion, where the money was withdrawn.
The same records showed that the cellphone then moved to Sunnyside in Pretoria. It also revealed calls between Monye and Gouws.
The court heard previously that, on the day of the murder, Monye was in a Pretoria court, where he was acquitted of another murder charge.
Moller said no trace of the R44 000 was found.
Henning and her husband were separated and involved in a custody battle over their child at the time of her death.
- SAPA
