Cape Town - The father accused of beating his 11-month-old son and leaving him to die inside a sewage pipe along a Cape Flats highway allegedly did it because his ex-girlfriend refused to give him money.
Lionel Kock, 33, a suspected drug addict, appeared at the Bellville Magistrates’ Court on Friday where he was charged with attempted murder.
Kock is being remanded at Goodwood Prison and is expected back in court on 9 March.
Sources close to the investigation revealed Kock allegedly pawned his sister’s goods and needed R70 to get the items back.
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Last Monday, Kock allegedly went to his ex-girlfriend’s house in Voorbrug and grabbed the child while talking with the mother.
He ran away with the child, and a passer-by found the baby, still alive, along the R300 near Delft.
The baby had been choked and beaten, “with maggots crawling out of his ears”.
The child is in a critical but stable condition at Red Cross Children’s Hospital.
Kock, from Roosendal, was bust on Wednesday.
The source explains: “He went to pand his sister’s stuff and he was looking for R70 to get the stuff out of the pand. He sent his relative to ask for a R70 and she [the ex]said no. He came back himself and he was making like he was playing with the child and then he grabbed the child."
“She started to chase him, but he was way too fast and he threw bricks at the people who were also chasing him. He is on drugs.”