‘I am going cuckoos,’ says Naidoo

Mathew Naidoo. Picture: Sandile Ndlovu

Mathew Naidoo. Picture: Sandile Ndlovu

Published Nov 7, 2011

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Double murder accused Mathew Naidoo conceded in the Durban High Court on Monday that he was making “quite a fool” of himself on the stand.

The 25-year-old, who pleaded not guilty to murdering Maria Magdalena “Riekie” Lotter, 52, and her husband Johannes Petrus Lotter, 53, was being cross-examined by Roland Parsotham, the lawyer acting for his co-accused Hardus Lotter.

Naidoo is accused, together with Hardus and his sister Nicolette, of killing the siblings' parents in their home in Westville, Durban, in 2008.

Parsotham told Naidoo that “you got caught in your own web”.

After about 90 minutes of being quizzed about a letter and a prayer he had written, which he agreed were in his own handwriting, Naidoo said: “I guess it is too late to ask for a mental evaluation right now.”

While he could not deny that the letters were in his handwriting, he said he had no recollection of some of the contents.

“Right now I am in a point of shock to be honest with you,” Naidoo said.

“You are shocked because the truth is coming out,” said Parsotham.

“I am going cuckoos,” Naidoo said.

He said it would have been stupid of him to write something that would have incriminated him.

Naidoo is out on bail, unlike his co-accused.

Parsotham asked him if he had read about the “Facebook rapist”, Thabo Bester who, in messages posted on the social networking site, dared the police to catch him. A few days later he was behind bars.

Naidoo said he was not involved in the murder of the Lotters on July 19, 2008. Mrs Lotter was stabbed to death and her husband was strangled with an electrical cord.

The Lotter siblings contend that Naidoo was the mastermind behind the plot to kill their parents, that he told them he was the third son of God and that God wanted them dead.

Naidoo was asked about a letter and a prayer he had written to God and to Nicolette, whom he said was his intended bride.

According to the prayer, Nicolette's father would die soon.

In the letter, he wrote that he was upset because Nicolette was being “spiritually raped” by three men in her car.

Asked what “spiritual rape” meant, Naidoo replied that Nicolette had felt spiritually unwell in herself, as if she was constantly having sex with someone.

Parsotham kept reminding Naidoo to tell the truth and that it would set him free. Naidoo said he had never said he was the son of God. – Sapa

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