Durban - As brothers Blayne and Kyle Shepard walked out of the Durban magistrate’s court on Monday afternoon they were met with hugs and handshakes from family and friends who had attended their bail hearing.
The brothers, both accused of beating Brett Williams to death, had been given their temporary freedom minutes earlier along with their co-accused Andries van der Merwe and Dustin van Wyk. A fifth accused, Grant Cramer – who was granted bail on Thursday – was in the dock with them.
Four of the five men accused of beating former Royal Marine Brett Williams to death, who lined up in the dock on Monday, live with their parents and are not married.
Accused One: Blayne Shepard, 23, lives with his parents in Glenwood. He matriculated from Glenwood High and previously worked for a car dealership in uMhlanga. He is single, unemployed and is supported by his father. He has qualified as a personal trainer and is currently looking for a job.
Accused Two: Blayne’s brother Kyle, 25, also lives with his parents. He completed Grade 10 at the Glenwood Christian School. He is single and is employed as a sales representative for a Durban electrical company.
Accused Three: Andries Jacobus van der Merwe, 23, lives in a rented property on the Bluff. He is single and has worked at his father’s Bluff bakery for four years.
Accused Four: Dustin van Wyk, 23, lives in Glenwood in a rented flat with his mother. He is single and is employed as a furniture salesman in Springfield Park.
Accused Five: Grant Cramer, 23, lives with his parents and the mother of his three-month-old baby in Escombe. He is a sales representative and is dating Sharks player Kyle Cooper’s sister Kirsten, who is also a State witness. Kyle Cooper was a former Glenwood High pupil.
“It has been horrific on my family, but the support has been amazing… our boys are popular in Glenwood,” said their mother, Carolyn Shepard, after magistrate Vanitah Armu made her ruling.
She added that it was a huge relief to have her sons home after they had been in custody for almost a week.
The mood outside court was in stark contrast to a few hours earlier when the four men sat stoically in the clammy courtroom while Armu listened to arguments for and against bail.
Family members stared ahead, craning forward to listen to every word said by the prosecutor and the defence lawyers. At one point, Carolyn put her head in her hands while proceedings continued. Others, who had come to show their support, sat stiff and focused while they waited for the magistrate’s ruling.
When Armu announced her decision to grant bail of R5 000 each, there was an audible sigh of relief and family members patted each other on the back, smiling and talking softly.
A cry of “thank you, Jesus” was also heard from the galley.
Blayne Shepard’s girlfriend, Sherry Johnson, said the wait for them to be released had been “awful” for her.
“You feel like you are constantly going to have a heart attack. All you can do is keep praying,” said Johnson.
Along with the family and partners, school friends of the accused were present and greeted their friends when they strolled out.
Walking alongside the four was Cramer, the 23-year-old who is also implicated in the attack. He was present for on Monday’s hearing, but had been out on bail since Thursday.
Armu also ruled that photographs and the names of the accused could be published, which saw photographers, journalists and cameramen jockeying around the family, recording every moment.
With camera shutters clicking away relentlessly, the Shepards, Van der Merwe, Van Wyk, and Cramer chatted briefly with their respective camps before climbing into their cars.
The Mercury