Johannesburg - The two men involved in the murder of Professor Carl Mischke have turned on each other in court, with each blaming the other for the beating that claimed the University of Johannesburg academic’s life.
Mischke was found dead in his Norwood home in April 2013, the house looted of electronic goods and other valuables.
On Wednesday, Mischke’s lover, Craig Thomas, revealed the details of the grim crime for the first time in court, after confessing to the robbery and murder last year.
This was during the murder trial of Jacques Terreblanche, who has also pleaded guilty to the robbery but denied the murder.
According to Thomas’s testimony, it was Terreblanche who suggested they kill the professor and raid his home to get money to satiate their crystal meth habit.
Thomas told the court that while he had agreed to the murder, it was Terreblanche who struck Mischke three times on the head with the metal bar of a dumbbell, leading to the professor’s death.
Under cross-examination on Thursday, Terreblanche’s lawyer, Jacques Oosthuizen, revealed that Thomas had given three separate – and very different – statements to the police and prosecution about what had happened.
However, Thomas admitted that he had lied numerous times in his first two statements to try to cover up his involvement in the crime. He told the court his final statement, reiterated in his court testimony, had been the truth – because he wanted Mischke’s family to know the true story behind the murder.
He then asked the court if he could give a Bible to Terreblanche, which was allowed, despite the confused look on the presiding judge’s face.
When Terreblanche took the stand, he painted an entirely different picture, saying Thomas had told him to come to the professor’s home where he had been staying to pick up electronic goods to sell for drugs. He claimed he did not know at first that the laptops, iPad and iPhone didn’t belong to Thomas, but when questioned, he altered his statement to say he knew one laptop was Mischke’s.
While Oosthuizen had put it to Thomas on the stand that his client had agreed to the robbery beforehand, Terreblanche’s own story at first sounded as though he wasn’t aware of the stolen goods, until the pair were fencing them to a Nigerian drug dealer.
Questioned by Judge Geraldine Borchers, he said he had known about the goods.
Terreblanche told the court that upon arrival at Mischke’s home, Thomas was engaged in an argument with the professor in the bedroom. Thomas came out to pick up the dumbbell bar and struck Mischke, and Terreblanche had told him to stop.
The trial continues.
The Star