Johannesburg – The police assaulted and coerced one of the men accused of the double murder in Rhodes Park into making a confession, the high court sitting at the Palm Ridge Magistrate’s Court heard on Thursday.
Lawyer Thulasizwe Mpanza, for Thabo Nkala, said on the night of Nkala’s arrest, police assaulted his client and told him what to say when making a statement regarding the crime in Rhodes Park. He said police forced him to point out the scene where the incident had occurred.
Mpanza said that everything written on the statement was fabricated by police. He suggested that the statement should not to be used as part of the evidence in court.
Prosecutor Monde Mbaqa called in police officers to testify that the 25-year-old was not beaten or forced to make a statement.
Leuitant Colonel Bhuti Duma, who took Nkala to Rhodes Park to point out the scene where the murder and rape took place, read out the questions and answers which were conducted before they went to the park.
In all the questions pertaining assault and intimidation, Nkala had responded by saying he was giving information out of his free will.
“He told me that he’s doing the pointing to clear his conscious,” said Duma.
At that time, Nkala was asked it he had an injuries or bruises to which he said no.
“His demeanour was okay and was smiling sometimes. I noted a scar on his face and he said its old and [that he] wasn’t assaulted,” Duma told the court.
Judge Papi Masopa adjourned the matter to Friday, for Duma to finish giving his testimony.
Nkala, Edmore Ndlovu, 23, Mduduzi Lawrence Mathibela, 32, are allegedly part of a gang that forced the husbands into the lake where they drowned and sexually assaulted and raped their wives.
Earlier, Shohen Rana who owns a cellphone shop in Yeoville told the court that he bought a Nokia Lumnia for R320 from the assailants and they also offered to sell him a ring and a gun which he declined.
Rana failed to identity the accused men in the dock. But he told the court that he knew one of the men who came to his shop that night.
African News Agency