Murdered toddler’s mother tells court she blew mandrax in his face

Orderick Lucas’s body was found in a stormwater drain in Eerste River on April 2, 2020.

Orderick Lucas’s body was found in a stormwater drain in Eerste River on April 2, 2020.

Published Feb 4, 2021

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Cape Town - Davidene Lucas, mother of slain one-year-old Orderick Lucas, admitted when she smoked mandrax she would blow smoke in his face as it would “help him sleep”.

This emerged in the Western Cape High Court, where Lucas was being cross-examined, as the case against murder accused Melvin Volkwyn continued.

Volkwyn has pleaded not guilty to murdering the 22-month-old boy

Orderick went missing on March 24. His body was found eight days later in a stormwater drain in Eerste River.

According to his mother, she had left him in Volkwyn’s care, who said he had taken Orderick back to the child’s grandmother, Cornelia Scheepers.

Lucas said she discovered on March 28 that he had never been returned.

On Wednesday on instruction from Volkwyn, defence attorney Susan Kuun confronted Lucas about drug use.

The attorney said former friends Lucas and Volkwyn smoked mandrax and tik together.

“It is my instruction that (Lucas) would blow (mandrax) smoke in Orderick's face as it will help him sleep or make him sleep quicker,” said Kuun.

Lucas answered: “That's correct.”

The boy's mother further testified on March 25, a day after her son went missing, she had smoked “only half” a pill of mandrax with State witness Eon Adams.

Kuun also probed Lucas about her allegation that four of her son's teeth were “extracted with pliers”.

According to an investigation by a social worker, the extraction of the boy's teeth when he was 9 months old wasn't part of his medical report.

Lucas never sought medical help after learning about the extraction, which left the toddler's “gum torn”, the social worker found.

Lucas said she nursed her son's mouth herself “with salt water”, until it got better.

Questioned on why the toddler wasn't taken for professional medical attention, Lucas said: “It all happened so fast, but I take the blame for not taking him to the clinic.”

Volkwyn, who is expected to testify, said Lucas had asked him to look after her son while she attended to “trouble” over a stolen cellphone.

Lucas had not been in legal custody of any of her four children at the time of Orderick's disappearance.

This followed an investigation by Child Welfare in Stellenbosch which led to full custody of Orderick and his twin siblings being granted to Lucas's mother and father, Cornelia and Devan Scheepers, in 2019.

Lucas's eldest daughter is in the custody of her biological father.

The matter continues.

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Cape Times

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