The protracted Cape High Court trial-within-a-trial in the Baby Jordan murder case ended on Thursday, with Judge Basheer Wagley ruling that statements by three of the five accused are admissible.
The hearing was launched by defence counsel Charles Simon, following prosecutor Nicolette Bell’s application to hand to the court statements made by Sipho Mfazwe, Mangezi Bobotyane and a 16-year-old juvenile who may not be named.
With the three in the dock are Dina Rodrigues and Zanethemba Gwada, all charged with the murder of baby Jordan-Leigh Norton, six-month-old daughter of Natasha Norton.
Simon contended that the statements were not made freely and voluntarily.
Evidence has been that Gwada, after his arrest in a township shack, took the police to the shacks where Bobotyane and the juvenile lived, and that Bobotyane then took the police to Mfazwe’s shack.
The judge ruled also that Bobotyane and Gwada acted freely and voluntarily in taking the police to the shacks they were looking for.
Rodrigues is alleged to have master-minded the murder, and to have hired her co-accused to pose as couriers to gain entry to the Norton home and stab the infant.
Her alleged motive was to save her lover, Neil Wilson, who fathered the baby during an earlier relationship with the baby’s mother, the burden of maintenance payments.
The case has been postponed for the Easter holidays and resumes on April 3. — Sapa