/ 20 January 2009

Bouncer accused of murder out on R500 bail

An East London bouncer accused of killing a 35-year-old man at a nightclub was on Monday released on R500 bail

An East London bouncer accused of killing a 35-year-old man at a nightclub was on Monday released on R500 bail, Eastern Cape police said.

Superintendent Mtati Tana said the 23-year-old Morris Claassen would be back in the East London Magistrate’s Court on April 21.

”His bail was initially set at R1 000, but it had to be reduced after his lawyer told the court that he couldn’t afford to pay that amount,” Tana said.

Claassen was initially charged with assault after he allegedly beat up Chad Fara at the Numbers nightclub in Beacon Bay following an argument during the early hours of Sunday morning.

”He [Fara] was elbowed in the face by the bouncer, fell and hit his head on the concrete, became unconscious and began bleeding from his nose,” Tana said.

Fara was taken to hospital in a critical condition. When he died on Monday, Claassen’s initial assault charge was changed to murder.

”He died from head injuries in the intensive-care unit at Frere Hospital at 11.30am,” Tana said.

Claassen handed himself over to police following Fara’s death.

According to reports in the Daily Dispatch, Fara was arguing with his fiancée Luanne Kirsten at the club when the bouncers intervened.

Kirsten was quoted by the paper as saying: ”They dragged him out through the back entrance and pushed me away so that I couldn’t follow them. I then went out through the main exit and walked right around the club, only to find him lying on the concrete and bleeding through the nose.

”He wasn’t responding to anything I said, and a guy who was parked outside the club told me that one of the bouncers had elbowed him in the face. I was scared because he was fine before they took him
outside.” – Sapa