Staggie: I'm nailed to the cross
2003-02-04 13:44
Cape Town - Former Hard Livings gang leader Rashied Staggie has protested his innocence after his conviction in the Cape High Court on charges of kidnapping, rape and the illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition.
He appeared before Acting Judge Jeremy Sarkin and two assessors, with co-accused Randall Bosch.
As Staggie testified in mitigation of sentence, he claimed he had been framed and subjected to an unfair trial.
Staggie and Bosch face life imprisonment for the gang rape of a teenaged girl.
The court found that Staggie and Bosch, with two other men, kidnapped the girl from Manenberg in August 2001 - she was then aged 17 - and took her to Mitchell's Plain where Staggie forced her, at gunpoint, to allow the men to rape her.
The judge warned the defence team on numerous occasions to focus on mitigation, and not his judgment, in which he had found Bosch and Staggie guilty.
'Nailed to the cross'
Defence counsel Jonas Mihalik, representing Bosch, questioned Staggie on his feelings about the judgment during cross-examination.
The judge warned Mihalik he would not permit him to focus on the judgment, but Mihalik countered that Staggie's feelings about the trial were very much part of the trial.
Staggie told the court he refused to testify in mitigation, because "I am already nailed to the cross".
He told the judge: "I leave it in your hands. I will be strong and won't be hurt by the punishment I get for crimes I did not commit."
Staggie claimed he was at home at the time the victim was kidnapped and raped.
The hearing continues.
- SAPA