The Cape High Court on Monday viewed gruesome video footage of the badly decomposed body of Dutch exchange student Marleen Konings.
The footage was too traumatic for Konings’s family, who left the courtroom during the viewing and then returned later.
The accused, Ferdinandt Mostert, who is conducting his own defence, paid no attention to the footage — instead concentrating on a file of documents on his lap.
Mostert is a paroled prisoner and has pleaded not guilty to two charges of murder.
One of the counts relates to Konings’ death after they met at a guesthouse in Mossel Bay a few days before Christmas last year. The other relates to that of a fellow prison inmate, Michael Victor, who was shot dead in April 1997.
Mostert has pleaded guilty to a number of theft and fraud charges, of which he has already been found guilty by Judge Dennis van Reenen and two assessors.
Cross-examining investigating officer Captain Piet Viljoen, Mostert confronted him about the ”traumatic” way in which he had been interrogated at Upington by a team of policemen after his arrest.
Viljoen replied that his specific instructions to the arresting team had been to confiscate and seal Mostert’s possessions, but not to question him.
Viljoen told the court he would not have used the tactics used by the interrogators.
He had given Mostert the assurance it would not happen again.
The hearing continues. – Sapa