Murder accused Andrew Jordaan told the Pretoria High Court on Tuesday that he wept at the manhole near which the body of seven-year-old Sheldean Human was found because he ”felt sorry” for her.
Jordaan again insisted he was innocent and knew nothing about the little blonde girl’s murder at Pretoria Gardens in February last year.
He could not explain why police singled him out to pin the murder on. He said it was probably because he was the first person to be arrested and possibly the last person to see Sheldean alive.
Grilled by prosecutor Andre Fourie, Jordaan maintained that the police had tortured him, forcing him to make a confession and point out a manhole behind the fresh produce market in Pretoria.
He said he had never been in that veld before, even though it was directly en route from Sheldean’s home to his own.
Police Director Piet Byleveld earlier testified that the girl’s decomposed body was found near a storm-water pipe about 40m from the manhole shortly after Jordaan pointed it out to the investigating officer.
Jordaan allegedly told the officer he had indecently assaulted Sheldean, strangled her and threw her body into the manhole.
Byleveld said police had been searching for the girl for weeks and would never have found the body in the dense bush if Jordaan had not cooperated.
Fourie put it to Jordaan that he had cried at the scene because that’s where he had killed Sheldean, but Jordaan said it was because he ”felt sorry for that child”.
Fourie put it to Jordaan that he had between June 2006 and January 2007 repeatedly sexually molested, raped and sodomised another seven-year-old girl and that he had on February 2007 used the opportunity to sexually molest Sheldean as well when she asked if she could go home to him.
Fourie put it to Jordaan that he had strangled Sheldean when she resisted his sexual advances.
Jordaan denied this, saying he had taken Sheldean and the other seven-year-old girl to a park, where he played with them before taking them home and then going home himself.
On Tuesday he revealed that he had carried Sheldean to and from the park because she was not wearing shoes.
To questions by Acting Judge Chris Eksteen, Jordaan said investigating officer Captain Ignatius van Aardt had tortured him, and told him to admit that he had murdered the child.
He gave no explanation of his detailed confession to Piet Byleveld, except to say that it was the result of Van Aardt’s torture.
Jordaan told the judge he had made his own albums of pornography for no other reason than because he was a collector.
He said it started when he was young and ”all young boys had naked women in their rooms”.
The trial was adjourned until Wednesday for Jordaan to call a witness to testify in his defence. — Sapa