Joshlin went missing from her home in the Middelpos informal settlement in Saldanha Bay on 19 February last year.
(Executive mayor Andrè Truter/Facebook)
The doctor who examined accused number two in the trial about the alleged kidnapping and trafficking of Joslin Smith has refuted claims that Stevano van Rhys sustained injuries after being detained by police in March 2024 and forced to confess under duress.
“I inquired from Mr Van Rhyn myself whether he had sustained any injuries since the previous the J88 [form] was completed or any assault, which Mr Van Rhyn denied,” medical examiner Tanya Zimri testified in the Western Cape high court sitting in Saldanha Bay on Friday.
Zimri was tasked to submit a J88 document, used to record findings during medico-legal examinations, after Van Rhyn’s alleged confession into the disappearance in February 2024 of Joslin, who was six at the time.
Defence lawyers say Jacquen “Boeta” Appollis and Van Rhyn — accused one and two in the case — were allegedly abused from 4 March 2025 until the early hours of the following day when both men made their false confessions. They also contend that neither Appollis nor Van Rhyn were read their rights.
Zimri read the J88 document in the witness box, which stated: “Upon questioning Mr Van Rhyn, he denies any new injuries or assault since the J88 completion earlier today by Dr Nel.”
The injuries noted by Zimri included a bandage over the left knee and bruising on the right knee. She said there were signs of healing abrasion on the right shoulder and left wrist.
“No new/fresh injuries noted,” read Zimri’s J88 document, submitted after Van Rhyn’s confession.
Judge Nathan Erasmus asked Zimri to clarify what she meant by “healing” to which she responded: “What I mean is that it is not new, there’s no fresh blood, it’s already in a stage of healing — so it’s not new.”
“Could you age it [the injury]?” Erasmus asked, to which Zimri responded: “It was at least 24 hours old.”
According to the doctor who conducted the pre-confession examination, Hendrik Nel, there were injuries to Van Rhyn’s left and right knee. Van Rhyn told Nel he had had surgery on his left knee a few years ago.
Nel, who testified to the court virtually on Thursday, said he asked Van Rhyn how he got the injury to his right knee, to which the accused said he had fallen from a bakkie the previous day.
“I wrote [in my clinical findings] bilateral form slight swelling anterior aspect, clinically no fractures, his left knee had old surgical scar with a possible hemarthrosis and fluid below the knee, soft tissue injury left knee, no fractures,” said Nel.
“I wrote ‘right knee soft tissue injury clinically no fractures’.”
In court documents, Van Rhys claims that a plastic bag was placed over his head making it difficult to breathe.
But, during the medical examination, Zimri said she had not seen any marks around the accused’s neck.
“I would have expected to see much more severe injuries — bruising, possible deeper abrasions, fractures possibly which is not what I observed when I examined Mr Van Rhyn on that day,” she told the court.
Zimri conducted a post-confession medical examination on Van Rhyn and not Appollis.
Nel and Zimri testified this week in a trial-within-a-trial to determine the admissibility of statements made by Apollis and Van Rhyn, given their allegations of being assaulted and tortured into making them.
On Friday, Erasmus asked to view the footage of Van Rhyn’s confession. The footage played on a big screen in the Saldanha Bay multipurpose centre being used as a court room, showed a calm and relaxed looking Van Rhyn smiling and answering questions.
As the footage continued to play, Erasmus said the video did not seem like a confession, and asked: “Why was I not told this document is no reflection of what is happening here?”
Earlier this week, Brigadier Leon Hanana, head of the province’s Serious and Violent Crimes Unit, testified that he had neither witnessed nor sanctioned any physical abuse during the interrogations of Appollis and Van Rhyn.
Prosecutors allege that Joslin’s mother, Kelly Smith — accused number three and partner to Appollis — sold her daughter to a sangoma for R20 000, with Van Rhyn and state witness Lourentia Lombaard receiving smaller amounts as hush money.
Joslin was last seen on 19 February 2024 in Appollis’s care at the family’s Middelpos shack. The three accused have pleaded not guilty to charges of kidnapping. Smith has not alleged any mistreatment by the police.