By Vuyisile Ngesi
No one should be held criminally liable for the death of 16-year-old Logan Klingenberg, who died at the Noupoort Christian Care Centre for drug addicts and alcoholics.
The teenager was found chained in a cell at a barracks in the Northern Cape centre on May 15 this year.
Philipstown magistrate Francois C Muller made the ruling on Wednesday at the inquest into Klingenberg's death, said advocate Kobus Steyn.
"Magistrate Muller also mentioned that the director of public prosecutions in Grahamstown should consider prosecuting Fabian Grentz on a charge of assault on Logan Klingenberg," Steyn added.
Ten witnesses testified at the inquest hearings, which started on Monday, including former senior staff members.
Cobus van Zyl, 21, told the inquest that he had heard Klingenberg scream from the detention barracks.
He said Klingenberg was weak as a result of heroin withdrawal.
Van Zyl added that Grentz and another staff member, Dave Barber, had repeatedly assaulted Klingenberg at the barracks.
Grentz and Barber had been charged over Klingenberg's death.
The Noupoort Christian Care Centre was represented by Francois van Zyl SC, from Cape Town, while an attorney from Johannesburg, Jannie Kruger, represented Grentz and Barber, who testified on Tuesday.
Dr Deon Nortje, who had examined Klingenberg, testified that he found bruises on the teenager's back and a thigh, and that his lip had been split open by a tooth.
Nortje said when he got to the cell, Klingenberg was lying with his feet facing the door. The boy was said to have committed suicide.
"One eyelid was half open, but I could not see any bleeding in his eyes as would be the case in a suicide," he added.
When the inquest started, the state called for two instructors and a former senior staff member to be charged with culpable homicide.