Cape Town - Shrien Dewani claims police took several hours before starting to take down his statement, knowing they could not arrange a helicopter to search for his wife until it was complete.
But police detective George Stephanus said he knew nothing of this, saying he was told the search for Anni Hindocha would only start after dawn.
This emerged in the Western Cape High Court this week in Dewani’s trial in which he stands accused of Anni’s murder. The State alleges Dewani was the brains behind the murder and paid hitmen to arrange her killing on November 13, 2010. Dewani claims they were hijacked and that the assailants let him go unharmed and drove off with his screaming wife.
Stephanus told the court that before Anni’s body was discovered in the VW Sharan in Khayelitsha the case was his, and treated as a hijacking.
He arrived at the Cape Grace Hotel about 1am, just hours after Dewani reported being hijacked. The court heard that it was several hours after he arrived that he started taking Dewani’s statement. He said this was because Dewani was an emotional wreck.
“I asked him if he was able to do it,” Stephanus said, adding Dewani agreed because he believed it would give police clues as to what had happened.
He said Dewani said repeatedly: “I hope they didn’t kill Anni. I hope Anni’s okay.”
Stephanus said he had questioned Dewani and, paragraph by paragraph, written down his responses. He had checked each paragraph with Dewani as he went along. The statement-taking process took about 45 minutes, and finished at 4.10am.
Stephanus said the statement did not reflect Dewani’s account verbatim but captured its essence. Dewani had elected not to read the statement because they had gone through it.
During cross-examination defence advocate Francois van Zyl SC tackled his credibility, pointing out that:
* A commissioner of oaths stamp appeared on the statement despite Stephanus not asking Dewani to take the oath. Stephanus admitted he had not done so, and said he had stamped the statement at the police station afterwards because he did not have the stamp with him at the Cape Grace.
* The statement did not record Dewani’s address and there was no contact number for him. Stephanus said he could not spell the UK address and Dewani was at the hotel. He said he did not take the contact number because Dewani’s phone had been stolen during the hijacking.
* Stephanus recorded the rand values of the items taken. Dewani said he gave the values in pounds and those Stephanus recorded were overstated. Stephanus insisted Dewani had provided the values.
* The word “township” appeared in the statement. Stephanus testified Dewani used it but Dewani claims it does not exist in his vocabulary.
* Dewani took issue with the chronology of events and went to Bellville with Captain Paul Hendrickse to change it.
Weekend Argus