/ 24 April 2008

McBride’s counsel goes after witness statements

The Pretoria Regional Court on Thursday turned down a new application by the defence team of Ekurhuleni metro chief Robert McBride to force the state to hand over all statements made by three state witnesses, even those not relating to his drunken-driving case.

Magistrate Peet Johnson said such an order would lead ”to an absurdity” where an accused person would also have access to other police dockets where he was still just a suspect.

McBride’s team has been granted permission to appeal the judgement in the Pretoria High Court.

The Pretoria Regional Court was told that 18 dockets involving McBride, some as a suspect, were stolen from the court last week.

McBride’s legal team on Thursday launched a fresh attempt to get access to state witness statements, even those not related to his drunken-driving case.

Itumeleng Koko, Stanley Sagathevan and Patrick Johnson, who have already testified in McBride’s drunken driving case, apparently made statements related to other cases being investigated in Johannesburg involving McBride.

Earlier, McBride’s team argued that the statements were relevant to his drunken-driving case as they might contain information on the credibility of the witnesses.

On Thursday, McBride’s team was making technical legal arguments that the court had jurisdiction to order the documents be given to it.

”There is no basis placed before the court by the state why these documents should not be made available,” advocate Guido Penzhorn said. He added that it was ”very clear” that the documents were likely to assist the defence.

State advocate Christo Roberts called the defence’s application a fishing expedition. He said the originals of the documents were still being held by police as they were still being investigated.

”It will seriously compromise the investigation if they are made available at this stage,” he said.

The case was postponed pending the outcome of the appeal. — Sapa