Johannsburg – Chanting protesters lined the street outside a court in Cape Town on Wednesday, in anticipation of the second court appearance of a man accused of the rape and murder of toddler Courtney Pieters, aged three.
As with Mortimer Saunders' first appearance last Wednesday, the court room was jampacked with Cape Flats residents – in addition to those in the street outside.
He made his second appearance in the Goodwood District Court, before magistrate Paul Visagie, who remanded him to August 24, for further investigation.
At the first appearance, legal aid lawyer Colin Lekay told the court that Saunders was employed at a call centre, and that his income exceeded the minimum allowed for free legal aid representation.
At Wednesday’s proceedings, the lawyer told the court that legal aid had since allowed his application, but that the accused no longer wanted free legal aid representation and had appointed a privately-funded lawyer.
This development compelled legal aid to withdraw from the matter, Lekay told the court. At this stage, the accused did not want to bring an application for his release on bail, the new lawyer told the court.
Prosecutor Adnaand Gelderbloem told the court that the investigation was far from completed, and requested that the man be remanded to August 24.
According to the charge sheet, the man was arrested on May 15. The court ordered that the accused be held in the hospital section at the Goodwood Prison, for security reasons, due to death threats that he had received in the awaiting-trial section of the prison.