High fives after attack on Marine

The Kings Park five yesterday became the Kings Park four when charges were withdrawn against Grant Cramer (far right). The other four, from left, brothers Blayne and Kyle Shepard, AJ van der Merwe and Dustin van Wyk will stand trial in March next year. Picture: Tania Broughton

The Kings Park five yesterday became the Kings Park four when charges were withdrawn against Grant Cramer (far right). The other four, from left, brothers Blayne and Kyle Shepard, AJ van der Merwe and Dustin van Wyk will stand trial in March next year. Picture: Tania Broughton

Published Sep 26, 2014

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Durban - What unfolded the night former British Royal Marine Brett Williams was attacked and killed was “like a kangaroo court”, an eye witness told the Durban Regional Court on Friday.

“You know what, you see things happen on TV and you can’t believe it. But that’s true - it was like a kangaroo court, that’s what took place here,” said Keith Seach, who had been working as a casual supervising manager for Fidelity Security.

He had been asked by prosecutor Krishan Shah to describe what he had seen in the outer fields at Kings Park Rugby stadium after a Natal Sharks/Melbourne Rebels game last year.

Seach told how he had seen Williams being punched, knocked to the ground and repeatedly kicked and how afterwards, his four alleged attackers “jumped up” and gave each other “high-fives” as they walked away.

Williams, 29, who was declared dead at the scene, had been in Durban on a stopover from his maritime security job, which involved guarding ships from pirate attacks as they negotiated East African coastal waters.

Blayne Shepard, 23, his brother Kyle, 25, Andries van der Merwe, 23, and Dustin van Wyk, 23, are accused of beating Williams to death outside the stadium on the night of March 23 last year.

They each face a charge of murder, three of assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm, and one of crimen injuria.

Seach told magistrate Trevor Lewitt that when he saw the fight break out, he called the police on the 10111 telephone number and said: “Guys, we need assistance now. Somebody’s going to die.”

He recalled that he had seen an earlier confrontation between Williams and another man, Grant Cramer, who had Williams in a chokehold.

Seach said he told the two men: “It has been a good evening:

let’s stop. Let’s go on own ways.”

The two were separated by two bystanders, he said.

Williams fell backwards and hit his head on the tar. His eyes were closed. When Seach shouted for the nearby paramedics, they ran to check his pulse and vital signs.

Williams then sat up, stood and walked away, although he was not 100 percent stable on his feet, Seach said.

The next minute, four men arrived on the scene, and one, Dustin van Wyk said he was looking for a chain.

As Seach and a colleague did not know his name at the time, they later dubbed him “pretty boy” as he did all the talking and was good looking, Seach told the court.

Seach said Van Wyk accused the security officers, who had arrived earlier, of stealing the chain.

He called them a “bunch of k****s” and shepherded them like a bunch of goats to push them to one side, Seach testified.

Another man in the same group had words with Williams and Williams replied “but it was all sorted out”, Seach said.

“Then fighting broke out again. I saw a punch thrown, and he (Williams) went down.”

The man who threw the punch was a “big-sized chap, muscular” whom Seach identified in court as Blayne Shepard.

The punch hit Williams on the right temple.

“I saw the deceased lying on the ground getting kicked and stamped on.”

Seach then stepped away to call 10111.

When he returned, the attack was still going on and he made another 10111 call. He was told the police were on their way.

Asked about details of the attack, Seach said he “saw kicking going to his body and head and stamping on his chest and head”.

Security reaction officers and two paramedics tried to protect Williams by forming a barrier around him but the four accused were fighting and throwing security around.

“Even a paramedic got punched,” he said.

One of the accused - Seach said he could not remember which one - was kneeling and picking up a paving brick and was ready to throw it.

He had one hand raised. A paramedic went forward and told him to put the brick down and he dropped it.

The case was adjourned to October 29 when Seach will be cross-examined by lawyers for the four accused, who were supported in court by relatives.

Representatives of Williams’s partner, Louise Scott, who is based in England, were also in court to watch the proceedings. One was Williams’s best friend and fellow marine, Josh Mills.

Sapa

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