Kimberley - The Barkly West man who was allegedly thrown off a bridge across the Vaal River by the former owner of Rietgat Pub and another man, on Tuesday not only claimed that he was offered money by his assailants but that they also bribed the doctor who completed his J88 medical report after the incident.
The victim, Bothata John Daniels, on Tuesday took to the witness stand in the Barkly West Magistrate’s Court in the trial of the two attempted murder accused, Ruhan Bekker, the former owner of Rietgat Pub in Barkly West, and Peter Watson.
They allegedly shoved Daniels onto the back of a bakkie outside Rietgat Pub, tied his hands with cable ties, took him to the bridge, untied his hands and then threw him into the river.
Bekker’s legal representative, Sakkie Nel, was the first to cross-examine Daniels and asked him why, when he said that the cable ties around his hands caused injuries, the J88 did not note any chafe marks.
Daniels replied by insisting that he did indeed sustain injuries to his wrists while being tied up with the cable ties and that he showed these injuries to the doctor and policemen present. He further claimed that the accused bribed the doctor to not note all his injuries.
Nel then showed Daniels two photographs of the two pieces of a cable tie that was collected on the bridge as evidence. He confirmed that these were pieces of the cable tie which was used to bound his hands and which Bekker cut off with a knife before allegedly pushing him off the bridge.
While Daniels confirmed that Bekker cut the cable ties only once, he said that a passing truck must have broken the cable tie into two pieces.
Nel put it to Daniels that he was lying and was never thrown off the bridge, adding that Daniels got the idea of cable ties from articles in a newspaper relating to a previous incident involving Bekker.
Daniels then responded by asking: “Why would Bekker then send people to offer me money (to withdraw the case)?”
Watson’s legal representative, Schalk van der Sandt, also hammered on the issue of the cable ties, and even handed Daniels the evidence bag containing the cable tie that was collected at the scene.
He asked Daniels why, when he had previously testified that the cable tie was blue in colour, did he say it was black when holding it in his hand on Tuesday.
Daniels said the attorney was “confusing him”.
Van der Sandt also accused Daniels of “blatantly lying”, saying there were never any cable ties involved during the alleged incident.
During cross-examination, Daniels also accused Bekker and Watson of “being under the influence of alcohol” during the incident, while he only smelled like alcohol as he did “not wash his mouth” after drinking the previous day.
The trial is expected to continue on Wednesday.
DFA
* E-mail your opinion to [email protected] and we will consider it for publication or use our Facebook and Twitter pages to comment on our stories. See links below.