Bredasdorp - Jonathan Davids, one of the accused in the rape and murder of Anene Booysen, was denied bail in the Bredasdorp Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday.
Davids and his co-accused, Johannes Kana, are facing a schedule 6 offence, which means they could get up to life imprisonment if found guilty.
Sergeant Dolene Olivier, who was the first investigating officer on the case, took the stand on Wednesday.
Olivier told the court she was on duty the day Anene was found mutilated and raped. She met the teenager in hospital on February 2.
“I went to sit on steps next to her bed and asked whether she could hear me. She said yes. I could see she was assaulted… her eyes were swollen shut, there was dry blood behind her ears and there was sand at the front of her hairline. Her cheeks were also purple,” said Olivier.
When she asked Anene whether she had any information on who assaulted her, she said she was in pain and would talk later.
Later at the police station, Olivier received an urgent message from a paramedic, that she should call him.
“She (Anene) told him that it was five to six people who did it to her and that she knew them. She said she knew them and that it was ‘Zwai’ and his friends from Kleinbegin.
“I asked whether he could ask her if it was a ‘bruin mens’ (coloured person) or ‘swart mens’ (black person) and she told him it was a ‘bruin mens’.”
The court heard on Wednesday that Zwai was Davids’s nickname. But he contends that there is another person with the same nickname living in a nearby township.
Olivier also revealed that the results of the possible blood stains found on Davids’s takkies were confirmed to be blood. “More tests are being done to ascertain whose blood it was.”
Under cross-examination Olivier told Pieter du Toit, the duo’s defence attorney, that the second “Zwai” in question was found on Tuesday at his home in the township.
“An affidavit was taken. We found him at his home,” said Olivier.
DuToit questioned how the other Zwai was found when the court was told the previous day that he had left town a month before the incident.
During closing arguments, Du Toit said that the State had a weak case based on circumstantial evidence.
Du Toit said that another factor which the court had to take into accont that Anene had been drinking the night the incident occurred, which could have affected her memory, and she was given a morphine injection when she mentioned ‘Zwai’.
Prosecutor Maria Marshall said the State had a strong case against Davids, with witnesses linking him to Anene that night, blood and semen found, as well as Anene naming Zwai on her death bead.
In his ruling magistrate Graham Cupido said that only if exceptional circumstances were proven in a schedule 6 offence would bail be granted.
“If you look at the night after the murder, there was disappointment and outrage – not only by community members, but it also sent shock waves around the world,” he said.
“Furthermore the violence against women and children in our country is very serious… The court must take this into account. If there wasn’t a strong case, it would be unfair to deny bail,” said Cupido.
“There is a prima facie against you. If you are released… people’s trust in justice would be questioned.”
The accused will return to court on April 22.
Cape Argus