Durban - THE family of a Bluff teenager who died after he was allegedly hung upside down and beaten in a tattoo parlour will have to wait until October for the trial.
Brandon Ashley Peterson, 37, Neville van der Westhuizen, 37, and Richard Juan Elliot, 23, face charges of murder, three counts of kidnapping and two counts of attempted murder.
Cody Lynton Houghton, 19, died on February 25, 2017, from blunt force trauma to the head. He was declared dead on arrival at hospital.
Houghton and two of his friends were allegedly falsely accused of stealing a cellphone from the tattoo parlour in Watsonia Road on the Bluff.
They were allegedly kidnapped on February 24, assaulted and thereafter released. Houghton died the following morning.
His family and friends, wearing T-shirts bearing Houghton’s face, filled the gallery yesterday in the Durban Magistrate’s Court in anticipation of the trial starting.
However, one of the three accused had changed his lawyer and was not ready to proceed.
During the bail proceedings in March 2017, it was alleged that Petersen instructed Elliott to tie Houghton on to an apparatus by his feet and that he and Van der Westhuizen punched and kicked the youngster.
The court had heard that Petersen reportedly pulled down his pants and showed Houghton his genitals.
All three men are out on bail.