A state witness, testifying at the murder trial Johan de Jager, has said he was a tik addict at the time that his sex worker friend was murdered.
|||Cape Town - A state witness, testifying at the trial of double murder accused Johan de Jager, has said he was a tik addict at the time that his sex worker friend was murdered.
Mcniel Jacobs, the prosecution’s second witness, testified last week about having last seen Parow sex worker Hiltina Alexander, 18, drive away in De Jager’s bakkie.
De Jager is accused of raping and murdering Alexander in May 2008. Her body was discovered by a passer-by in bushes along the N7 at Frankdale.
Defence lawyer Sakkie Maartens recalled Jacobs to the stand on Wednesday in a bid to establish on which day he had seen De Jager picking up Alexander.
Maartens put it to Jacobs that in his first statement to police, he had said the pick-up took place early on Sunday, May 18, 2008. In a second statement he had said it had taken place on the following day.
Jacobs said he remembered “very well” that the pick-up had happened in the early hours of the Sunday because he had visited his mother at her home later that morning and she had been preparing her church clothes.
Asked whether the officer who had taken down his statement had got the date wrong, Jacobs answered that this must be so.
Cross-examined about the date on which his first statement was taken, June 18, 2008, he said he could not remember having made a statement to police on his birthday – which was that day.
Maartens told Jacobs he would not blame him for not remembering when he gave the statement because the incident had taken place five years ago.
Jacobs then said that five years ago he wasn’t involved in the same “business” as he was now. He was now a rasta.
Asked what he meant by “business”, Jacobs said that five years ago he had been a “tik kop”.
The State objected to Maartens’s probing this point further, saying it was not relevant to what Jacobs had seen.
Maartens countered that Jacobs had volunteered this information rather than having been pressed for it.
Acting Judge Chuma Cossie, however, warned Maartens not to pursue the matter.
De Jager is on trial in the Western Cape High Court on seven charges for crimes relating to Charmaine Maré, 18, who was murdered in January, and Alexander.
Maré had been visiting Cape Town from Mpumalanga and was staying at the Kraaifontein home of Carol White. De Jager was White’s partner and shared her home, while Maré was friends with White’s daughter.
De Jager has pleaded not guilty to most of the charges, including raping Alexander and murder. He has admitted in a plea explanation to stealing Maré cellphone, and dismembering and burning her body.
The trial continues on Thursday.
leila.samodien@inl.co.za
Cape Times