A 13-year-old Johannesburg Regional Court case involving former bodybuilder and bouncer Gary Beuthin is expected to be back on track soon.
The case, which has met with many setbacks, includes charges of attempted murder, assault with attempt to do grievous bodily harm and escaping from custody, and dates back to incidents which occurred between December 1990 and February 1991.
Beuthin was sentenced on August 31, 1993, in the Johannesburg High Court, to an effective 25 years imprisonment in another, unrelated, case. He cannot apply for parole in the 1993 case until the finalisation of the current regional court case.
The prosecutor Glynis Breytenbach was at the Johannesburg Regional Court on Thursday for the fifth time to finalise her complaint that Beuithin was unnecessarily delaying the pending trial.
On the last occasion, his legal representative withdrew from the enquiry as he had received death threats via his cellphone. The problem arose when the court operator died in a bus accident and the state tapes could not be found and Beuthin wanted to transcribe the defence micro-cassettes.
On Thursday, Beuthin told the court he had obtained the cassettes and that prison authorities had sanctioned the use of a play-only tape recorder for this purpose.
Beuthin, however, was unable to continue on Thursday due to an old bone injury which had begun to bleed.
The court ordered that Beuthin receive hospital treatment before his next court appearance on February 17. – Sapa