A man accused of killing his five-year-old stepdaughter claimed in the Grahamstown High Court on Monday that the blood found on his jacket was not hers but belonged to a sheep.
Appearing before Judge Bonisile Sandi was John Brown (33), of Old Location, Middelburg.
He pleaded not guilty to the murder of his stepdaughter Asiba Tshoba in the township between June 9 and 10 last year.
Brown’s lawyer, Templeton Solani, told the court his client had elected to remain silent, but would deny killing the girl.
”He [Brown] will admit that the girl was assaulted and died as a result of a brain haemorrhage, but my instructions are that the blood that was found on his jacket belonged to that of a sheep,” Solani said.
”His explanation for her blood found on his jacket resulted from the girl suffering from a nosebleed a week before the incident, and the accused will say he carried her home because it was a very hot day,” said Solani.
The girl’s mother, Mietjie Nokuzola Tshoba, wept as she recounted the quarrel between her and the accused, before her daughter was murdered.
She said she and the accused were married in customary law, and Asiba was born from a previous relationship.
”That evening he [Brown] came home and he was very drunk. He started shouting at me and hitting me. Then he pulled my baby child off my back. I was so afraid I fled to my aunt’s place.”
Tshoba said the accused had returned later that evening with the baby, and later on with her young son.
”When I asked him where Asiba was, he told me she was still at home. I immediately went to our house and a little boy ran out into the street, and told me my daughter was lying next to the road,” the mother testified. ”I went to her and could see my child was dead.”
DNA expert Captain Ulrich Koenze said blood samples of the girl as well as Brown’s were found on his jacket.
The trial continues. — Sapa