/ 21 March 2001

NADIA ACCUSED SAYS HE?S INNOCENT

A 43-year-old man arrested in connection with the alleged abduction and indecent assault of seven-year-old Nadia Neethling has told the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court that he was “innocent” and could not afford a lawyer. Willem Hendrik Christoffel Vorster and his 21-year-old girlfriend, Aletta Johanna Swarts, both of Danville, Pretoria, were not asked to plead. The couple were arrested on Saturday, a week after Nadia disappeared while walking to her home two blocks away from a friend?s house in Proclamation Hill. She was reunited with her family on Wednesday. According to the charge sheet, needlemarks were found on Nadia?s body.