Durban - A young man who claims to have witnessed a brawl at Kings Park Stadium which resulted in the death of former Royal Marine Brett Williams was either “simply lying” or so drunk on the night that he could not really remember what happened, it was put to him on Tuesday.
Timothy Crichton claims to have seen one of the four accused standing trial for Williams’s murder “kicking him while he was down”, and another pick up a slab of concrete, “although I did not see what he did with it”.
He was testifying this week before Durban Regional Court magistrate Trevor Levitt when the trial against brothers Blayne and Kyle Shepard and friends Andries van der Merwe and Dustin van Wyk resumed.
The trial was adjourned earlier this year for the hearing of more evidence of what happened that night in March last year after a match in which the Sharks beat the Melbourne Rebels.
The State alleges that Williams - who was working on a ship docked in Durban’s harbour - had been involved in an earlier altercation with another friend of the four accused, Grant Cramer, who had eventually, “in self-defence”, put him in a chokehold.
He lost consciousness and had to be revived by paramedics.
While Cramer and others he was with were looking for Cramer’s neck chain, presumably ripped off during the fight, the four accused allegedly set upon Williams, beating and kicking him to death.
They have all pleaded not guilty.
Cramer was initially arrested, but charges were later withdrawn, and he has already testified in the trial for the State.
Crichton says he was with his girlfriend, Jessica Brown, who was friends with Cramer and Cramer’s girlfriend, Kirsten Cooper, on that night, and claims to have witnessed the altercation between Williams and Cramer.
He had been involved with looking for the chain, but had seen Van Wyk with the slab of concrete and Kyle Shepherd kicking Williams.
He admitted to having had five double brandies that night, and claimed to remember this, although it was clear from cross-examination that he had not seen, or could not remember seeing, much else.
It was suggested to him by advocate Christo van Schalkwyk, for the brothers, that in her statement Cooper had said “the security guards and the medics were pushing everyone”, and it was during this time that Williams fell to the ground.
She had said it looked like Williams had hit the edge of a parked trailer, “and I never saw him move after that”.
The advocate said: “Isn’t this what really happened? Your allegedly seeing the accused is not the truth.”
Crichton responded: “I saw what I saw.”
The advocate showed him photographs of Williams after he died.
“If your version is to be believed, he would have marks on his clothing and he would have relevant injuries. There are none. It is all simply false.”
Attorney Malcolm Lutge, for Van der Merwe, suggested to Crichton that he and his friends had drafted their affidavits to support Cramer’s version, and to make sure that he would get bail.
But Crichton said he had just written what he had seen.
“They were Jessica’s friends, and she asked me to make a statement. I did it to keep the peace.”
The Mercury