/ 27 December 2005

Man in court over boy’s death in Plettenberg Bay

A man briefly appeared in the Plettenberg Bay Magistrate's Court on Tuesday in connection with the murder of a six-year-old Johannesburg boy in the coastal resort town. Inspector Elgin Antonie earlier said the man on Christmas Day confessed to the killing. He was arrested on Christmas Eve.

A man briefly appeared in the Plettenberg Bay Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday in connection with the murder of a six-year-old Johannesburg boy in the coastal resort town.

Steven Siebert was found murdered on Saturday morning.

Theuns Christian Olivier (47) remains in custody and will next appear in court in nearby Knysna next Tuesday. No charges were put to him.

Inspector Elgin Antonie earlier said the man on Christmas Day confessed to the killing. He was arrested on Christmas Eve.

Siebert was last seen on Friday in the company of a dark-haired man with a grey beard in the garden of the house in which his family was staying in Robberg, Plettenberg Bay.

His body was found at 9.45am on Saturday, Antonie said.

Helga Lengacher, an eyewitness, said she saw Siebert with a ”rather hobo-looking” man as she drove past his family’s property on Friday night.

She said on Saturday morning that the man appeared to helping Steven climb up, or out of, a tree.

”The boy was killed. He was found in the bushes,” an emotional Lengacher said on Saturday.

Steven’s uncle, Paul Buys, said the boy probably disappeared at 7pm on Friday and it was likely that he had wandered in and out of the house in which his family were staying in Stableford Drive.

Holidaymakers and locals helped the police look for him throughout the night.

Antonie would not speculate on the motive for the murder, but discounted a rumour that the killing was related to satanism.

Antonie said the body was not mutilated and it appeared the boy had been strangled. He would not say if the child had been molested.

The body was taken to a police mortuary at Touwsriver where a post-mortem would be carried out.

Steven’s body was found in thick bush next to the place where his alleged assailant lived — on the property of a house he was employed to renovate.

Antonie said there are no other suspects in the case and he is not aware of other charges, save the murder charge, being investigated. — Sapa