A “very strange” god entered into Nicolette Lotter’s life – he had a dirty mouth, abused her, sponged off her and lay around her room all day, eating.
This was the submission of State advocate Rea Mina, challenging Lotter’s evidence that she believed her former boyfriend Mathew Naidoo was the son of God and that God spoke through him.
“He did not work. He sexually abused you. He punished you. He lay around all day doing nothing,” Mina said, questioning how an intelligent 26-year-old with a tertiary education could have believed Naidoo.
“I don’t know what spell he was using on me, but I believed him,” Lotter said. “In fact, I believed I was so lucky. I met all the angels (who spoke through him) and I met God. I thought I was blessed.”
Lotter, her brother Hardus and Naidoo are on trial before Durban High Court Judge Shyam Gyanda, charged with the murders of her parents, Johan and Rickie, at their Westville home in July 2008.
While the siblings have pleaded not guilty to the charges, they have admitted committing the crimes but say they had been brainwashed by Naidoo, who convinced them that God spoke through him and wanted their parents dead because they were evil.
Naidoo denies all the allegations and says he had nothing whatsoever to do with the murders.
Lotter said on Wednesday that although she had been reluctant to commit the crimes, she had been prepared to sacrifice her parents for God because she repeatedly heard the scripture “if you love your mother and father more than God, then you can’t enter the kingdom of heaven” in her head.
“I had to obey God,” she said. “I did not stab her (her mother) out of hatred, but because I loved God.”
Mina questioned why she had attempted to cover up the crimes if she had thought she was doing God’s work and that what she was doing was right.
Lotter replied: “God didn’t want us to get caught.
“Before we went to the police, Mathew said he would be strong and not crack. But when I realised that he had been lying to us, and that he was not the son of God, I told the truth.”
This realisation came at the offices of the police organised crime unit when Captain Shane Smith pointed to Naidoo as he walked past and said: “He is the devil.”
Until that point, she had even offered to go to jail for Naidoo.
“I see everything clearly now. I don’t know what spell he (Naidoo) was using. There is nothing I can do now to get my parents back.”
Mina pointed out to Lotter that she had been kicked out of home (because her parents did not like Naidoo), had been forced to go back cap in hand because she had no money, “and two weeks later, they were dead”.
This week, Hardus turned on his sister and, through his advocate, suggested that she had been instrumental in persuading him to believe in Naidoo and to participate in the crimes.
He claimed that Lotter had wanted him to plead guilty so that she could get off scot-free.
Naidoo’s advocate, Vijay Sivakumoor, suggested that Lotter had been the mastermind and that she had wanted to inherit her parents’ estate.
It was also pointed out to her that, in his statement, Hardus had said that “Nicky” – not Naidoo – had told him to lie to the police and say that intruders had broken into the house, locked him in his bedroom and then committed the murders.
The trial continues on Thursday, when a clinical psychologist is expected to testify for the siblings. - The Mercury