Prosecutors in the Inge Lotz trial were “deliberately deceived” by police investigating her case, who “withheld information” from them that would have stopped the prosecution of Lotz’s boyfriend, Fred van der Vyver.
That’s according to Dup de Bruyn, SC, one of Van der Vyver’s three advocates, as his civil case for damages amounting to about R46 million gets under way in the Western Cape High Court.
Van der Vyver was charged with bludgeoning the Matie student to death with a hammer in her Stellenbosch apartment in 2005, but later acquitted. Now Van der Vyver is back in court, citing “malicious prosecution” against the Minister of Safety and Security.
Five years on, police are yet to arrest anyone else in connection with the murder.
Van der Vyver, who was dressed neatly in a dark suit before Judge Anton Veldhuizen yesterday, sat with his parents close to his advocates.
He is also expected to be called to the stand as one of four witnesses and was listed as the final witness.
The first witness, William Bodziak, a shoeprint expert from the United States, is expected to testify on Monday.
Addressing the court on what Judge Veldhuizen referred to as the “nub of the case”, De Bruyn said: “(Police) willfully made statements which were willfully false in material respects but for which the prosecution would not have been undertaken.”
Police had also “willfully made inadequate inquiries or none at all when the questions and inquiries cried out for investigation”.
“(They) dishonestly prejudiced the judgment of the prosecuting authority and in so doing, precluded an unfettered exercise of the prosecuting authority’s discretion,” De Bruyn said.
He said police had gone “beyond honest and fair statements of the relevant facts”. As a result, they had “actively assisted and identified themselves with the prosecution”.
De Bruyn said he also wanted to put on record that he had been denied permission by Western Cape Director of Public Prosecutions Rodney de Kock to consult with the prosecutors of the criminal trial.
Another advocate, Henri Viljoen, SC, told Judge Veldhuizen that police officers had “wrongfully and maliciously instituted a trial against Van der Vyver”.
“This case will be a little different because it was preceded by a long criminal trial,” he said. “This means that a lot of what was said there will be used here.”
Viljoen went on to quote from the judgment that was read out at the time by Judge Deon van Zyl who, along with two assessors, had unanimously found Van der Vyver not guilty. Viljoen said that the Van der Vyver family had experienced a difficult time while the trial was under way.
Judge Van Zyl said at the time that the State had failed in all respects to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Van der Vyver had a motive to kill Lotz.
He had also hit out at police, saying that the testimony of more than one of the officers was “unreliable”, “evasive” and “dishonest”.
Turning to the witnesses who would be called, Viljoen said that they would specifically address the main points that were raised in the State’s criminal case when Van der Vyver was charged with the murder. This revolved around a bloody footprint and fingerprint evidence.
Van der Vyver is expected to testify about his relationship with Lotz and the effectiveness of security at Old Mutual, where he worked at the time.
[email protected] - Cape Times