Pretoria - The so-called “Modimolle monster”, Johan Kotze, did not realise he had hurt his ex-wife Ina Bonnette until he saw blood, the Pretoria High Court heard on Thursday.
“Then, I stopped,” Kotze told the court in response to a question by Francois van As, the lawyer representing two of his co-accused, Pieta Mohlane, and Frans Mphaka.
“I knew I was angry, then I left, then I grabbed something and then I would burst out in anger.
“That day and a normal day is not the same... I was a totally different person.”
Van As handed Kotze a needle found in the room and asked him if it was the one he used to threaten Bonnette.
“I can't say if it's this one... It could be a similar one.”
Kotze is accused of orchestrating the gang-rape of Bonnette, and of murdering his stepson Conrad, 19, in his rented home in Modimolle on January 3.
Andries Sithole, Mohlane, and Mphaka are also accused of kidnapping, assaulting, repeatedly raping, and attempting to murder Bonnette that day.
Van As asked Kotze if there was anything he remembered or wanted to say to come clean.
“You now have the opportunity to come clean. A child is dead and people traumatised,” Van As said.
Kotze declined and said he would answer any questions he was asked.
Bonnette and Kotze's daughter Jo-Marie Kotze sat in the public gallery again on Thursday.
On Wednesday, Kotze implicated Sithole in the planning of the attack.
“I suspect Andries,” he told the court. - Sapa