Murder-accused truck driver revises his story

Richard Duxbury from Margate was killed in an incident on the M4 two years ago.

Richard Duxbury from Margate was killed in an incident on the M4 two years ago.

Published Mar 18, 2014

Share

Durban -

Truck driver Mohammed Sathar, who allegedly killed a Margate man in an incident on the M4 two years ago, initially claimed he had not driven his truck on the day of the murder.

Now he has said he was there when two “big white men carrying what looked like sticks” appeared in the road.

Sathar has pleaded not guilty to murdering Richard Duxbury and pointing a firearm in connection with the February 2012 incident near the Jacobs off-ramp.

The defence’s version is that Sathar slowed down upon seeing the men and they jumped on to the steps of his truck. One assaulted him through the window, he reached for his gun, a shot went off and he fled.

Last year, Duxbury’s father, Brian, testified for the State that he had been with his son on the day of the murder. He said Sathar’s truck had forced their bakkie off the road, and Duxbury had been shot after he had approached the truck.

On Monday, investigating officer Warrant Officer Marius van der Looy testified that Sathar had been arrested in March 2012, nine days after the incident.

Van der Looy testified that, after Sathar had been arrested, he had claimed a Malawian national named “George” had been driving the truck on the day and the man’s driving licence had been in the truck’s cab. Van der Looy said he had found the licence in the truck.

He said Sathar also claimed his son had picked him up on the day of the incident and taken him to Springfield, but his son denied this in a statement to police.

Sathar later gave another version to police, alleging a white man had assaulted him with a wooden baseball bat.

Van der Looy said the bat had been handed to him by the defence team about a week after Sathar’s arrest.

Sathar’s advocate, Ravi Reddy, asked Van der Looy if it was not “irregular procedure” for him to place the bat in the police station’s exhibit register five days after he had received it. Van der Looy denied this, saying he had kept it in a safe in his office.

Reddy also said there was “nothing sinister” about Sathar not mentioning the bat when he was questioned by the police because he had not been asked about it.

The case has been adjourned to later this month.

The Mercury

Related Topics: