Kings Park murder accused to know fate soon

Former Royal Marine Brett Williams, who was beaten to death at Kings Park Stadium.

Former Royal Marine Brett Williams, who was beaten to death at Kings Park Stadium.

Published Nov 7, 2014

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Durban -

The four men charged with the murder of former Royal Marine Brett Williams may know their fate on Friday after their attorneys argued that they should be discharged.

Blayne Shepard, 24, his brother, Kyle, 26, and friends Andries van der Merwe, 24, and Dustin van Wyk, 24, are on trial for the murder of Williams and other charges relating to events at Kings Park Stadium on March 23 last year.

All have pleaded not guilty.

The State is expected to oppose the discharge applications for the accused.

The test for a discharge is whether there is enough evidence at the end of the State's case for a “reasonable person” to convict the accused.

If the applications are dismissed by magistrate Trevor Levitt, then the four will have to decide whether to take the stand and subject themselves to cross-examination.

The discharge applications were meant to be heard on Thursday after the State closed its case earlier this week.

But the defence brought an application to ask the court to admit statements made by two State witnesses that had not been given to them before the start of the trial.

The statements were made by ER24 paramedic Derrick Banks to his head office and by security supervisor Keith Seach to staff at the stadium’s venue operating centre in the early hours of the morning of March 24.

Advocate Christo van Schalkwyk SC, for the Shepards, argued on Thursday that the statements, which had only been given to the investigating officer this week, should be admitted to the court.

“The statements are essential for a just decision to be made and have to be dealt with now before the discharge applications.”

Van Schalkwyk said the statements were different from those the witnesses gave police and from their court testimonies.

Attorneys Malcolm Lutge and Reneshan Naidoo, acting for Van der Merwe and Van Wyk respectively, said the statements would benefit the court.

Levitt admitted the statements on the grounds that the witnesses confirmed they had made them.

Seach, who was recalled to testify, said he had only made a verbal report, but confirmed his signature was on the statement.

“I did not read what was written there, it was around one o’clock in the morning after a stressful night and I wanted to go home.”

He confirmed the document contained “serious inaccuracies” and suggested that the person who had written it had also spoken to other people.

Banks, who is in Cape Town, confirmed via messages to prosecutor Krishen Shah that he made a report to ER24’s head office.

The Mercury

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