Pretoria - His wife turned into “half a person, half a snake” and attacked him. This was the explanation triple-murder accused Evans Mpanyane gave the police shortly after his arrest, his lawyer told the Pretoria High Court on Wednesday.
Mpanyane is accused of strangling his wife, Cornelia, 30, and their two daughters, Priscilla, seven and Joy, six.
He pleaded not guilty to the three murders, but declined to give an explanation of plea.
The court gained a glimpse of his defence when his lawyer, during cross-examination on Wednesday, asked the investigating officer, Constable Godfrey Mashilo, whether he had taken a warning statement from the accused after his arrest.
The police officer denied that he had, but according to Mpanyane’s version he gave a statement in which he said his wife half turned into a snake and attacked him.
He also said the police had told him at the time that “witchcraft as a defence would not help him”.
Mpanyane accused the police of not explaining to him his constitutional rights following his arrest. He told the court through his lawyer that if this had been done, he would have called his pastor and his mother “to be at his side to comfort him”.
Judge George Webster was told the accused was scared and confused at the time.
The court also heard evidence this week that it was not Cornelia, but the accused, who had written the “suicide notes” found on her body.
An expert employed by the SAPS analysed the handwriting in the notes by comparing it with the handwriting of Mpanyane and of Cornelia contained in exercise books.
The exercise books were fetched by Mashilo from the Mpanyane couple’s home after Cornelia was found dead on December 16, 2011.
The defence questioned Mashilo at length on Wednesday about whom he had obtained these books from and what he had done with them after they were handed over to him. He said he had sealed them in exhibit bags, as he would normally do.
The investigating officer was accused by Mpanyane of “receiving bribery money” from someone to “interfere with the evidence in this case”. Mashilo denied this.
Cornelia’s body was discovered by passers-by under a tree in Kameelfontein. She was near-naked and “suicide notes” written in Pedi were found on her body.
The bodies of the children were found on the back seat of their father’s car. In pictures handed to court, the two, dressed in identical pink polka dot sundresses, appear to be sleeping. According to a post-mortem report, the mother and two daughters were strangled.
Pretoria News