2 years ago
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ARTICLE AD BOX
- Three men were acquitted of murdering Berodine Boyce on Wednesday.
- The court discharged the case, saying there was no circumstantial evidence to justify carrying on with the trial.
- Boyce was beaten on the head with a blunt object and her throat slit.
Three men were on Wednesday acquitted of the kidnap, murder and possible sexual assault of St Helena Bay teenager Berodine Boyce when the Western Cape High Court granted their application for the discharge of the case.
"We have not seen circumstantial evidence. There is no such evidence," said Judge Robert Henney.
"How the prosecution could have decided that the accused, on this flimsy evidence, could be convicted and prosecuted... that puzzles me," said Henney.
"There's no evidence that any of the accused inflicted any harm on the deceased... or that they were involved in the disposing of her body."
Henney said the investigating officer had tried his best, but there was insufficient evidence.
"The court finds all three of the accused not guilty," said Henney.
Elroy Galant, Sheldon Christians and Duran Snyders were on trial for the murder of the 16-year-old girl, who was last seen in the West Coast fishing town on 6 July 2018.
They had been in custody since their arrest almost five years ago.
She was reported missing on 9 July - and her body was found on 12 July, covered in sand, on a sports field in Laingville.
Her head had been severely beaten, and her throat slit.
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The autopsy did not exclude the possibility of sexual assault, although the findings could not confirm.
The State also added charges of defeating or obstructing the administration of justice for the way her broken body was treated after her death.
After Henney handed down judgment on their application for discharge, the three men breathed out loudly in relief.
With elation flashing across their faces, two of the three skipped down the steps as they prepared to fetch their toothbrushes from prison and go home.
However, the third, Snyders, will go back to prison to continue serving a 22-year sentence for the murder of a man days after Boyce's body was found.
In a previous plea and sentencing agreement for that murder, Snyders admitted plunging a knife into Danville Don's neck on 15 July 2018 and dragging the blade across his neck.
Snyders said he murdered Don for belittling him in front of other people.
The contents of an early statement by Christians, accused two, before the matter went to trial, contained claims that he was told to look inside an oil drum.
He said he saw a body stuffed into it, and that he was told to move this drum to a field.
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However, as promising as this shred of information would have been to the State, he could not say whether the body was male or female, because he only saw a cheek, a foot, and a bloodied blanket.
He alleged in his statement to police that he was only speaking out about the little he knew, in the hope that he could be set free because Snyders was allegedly threatening him in jail.
The information before the court had sketched a tragic microcosm of unemployed and under-educated men wiling away their days in what they call "hokkies" (cages) - the nickname for shacks in smaller towns and rural areas in Western Cape.
The testimony of the State builds a picture of jobless men, whose highest qualification is Grade 6 or 8, passing time with drugs and alcohol, only interrupting this routine with short walks to fetch more drugs.
Wednesday morning's witness, Brendan Lee Jacobs, might have been the State's last hope.
Giving the court a taste of what the police and prosecution were up against in finding justice for Boyce, he set the scene by saying he was sitting at Mama Kaksak's (poop bag) shebeen in Laingville.
He was asked to repeat the name of the shebeen several times as sounds of astonishment were stifled in frilly lawyer collars.
He left the shebeen to fetch some "grass" and described some of the people he passed on his way.
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Once he got what he wanted to smoke, he sat behind an electricity box to enjoy his joint and watch the night turn to day.
He had just pulled on his joint when he saw some men carrying somebody by the legs and arms.
But, he could not tell whether it was a woman or a man they were carrying, and whether they were alive or not. But, importantly, when asked in court, he could not remember exactly when this happened either.
After listening to the argument for discharge, Henney asked the prosecutor pointedly: "Would you convict them?"
"No, My lord," said advocate Maresa Engelbrecht frankly, explaining that she had pointed out the problems with the evidence, but had been instructed to prosecute nevertheless.
So, while justice favours the three accused, Engelbrecht now has the terrible task of calling Boyce's mother with the news that there is still no answer as to who killed her daughter.
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