Western Cape police suspect that the 47-year-old handyman accused of killing a six-year-old Johannesburg boy in Plettenberg Bay might not be South African.
Investigating officer John Nomdoe said on Tuesday that police were expecting the results of a fingerprints analysis from the South African Police Service crime-reporting centre in Pretoria later in the day.
He said this would help clarify who the man was.
The accused, who was on Tuesday expected to appear in the Knysna Magistrate’s Court, goes by the names of Theuns Christian Olivier as well as Raymond Sinclair.
Asked if the alleged murderer was assaulted in the Knysna correctional centre while in custody, Nomdoe said fellow prisoners in the communal cell were leaving him alone.
”He has no jail chappies [tattoos] but satanism chappies, like an animal head with horns and [the number] triple six between them,” said Nomdoe. ”He also has an upside down cross with the words ‘Burn in hell’.”
Six-year-old Steven Siebert went missing on December 23 while on holiday with his parents in Plettenberg Bay. He was found murdered near his parents’ holiday home on Christmas Eve.
A passing motorist, Helga Lengacher, told police she saw Siebert with a ”rather hobo-looking” man that Friday evening as she drove past his family’s property. She gave a description of the man and Olivier was arrested soon afterwards. He is said to have confessed to the murder.
Olivier appeared in the Plettenberg Bay Magistrate’s Court on December 27 when he was remanded to Tuesday.
The case was moved to Knysna due to security reasons and the size of the courtroom. — Sapa