Whitethorn (97 page)

Judge Ludorf, speaking in Afrikaans, opened the court proceedings by introducing the two assessors, one on either side of him. He then began his opening address, immediately creating controversy. ‘I note with apprehension that some members of the public gallery are wearing what I believe is known as a blood rope. I now order the two police officers in the gallery to confiscate these items.' Gawie Grobler jumped to his feet. ‘Yes, what is it, Meneer Grobler?' the judge asked, looking over the top of his spectacles.

‘With the greatest respect, My Lord, I submit that the items in question are a part of a person's apparel, in essence no different to a necklace with a cross attached or a badge of affiliation, a statement of one's beliefs or membership of an association.'

I grinned inwardly, it was the same old Gawie of The Boys Farm, always wanting to have the first word. His objection, in my opinion, was ill-conceived and I wondered whether he secretly felt that his case for the defence wasn't as strong as he'd hoped, and wanted to appear confident and assertive from the first word. The judge was having none of it.

‘Thank you, Meneer Grobler, I should remind you that this is
my
court,' Judge Ludorf said firmly. ‘You may sit down.' He looked up at the public gallery. ‘Would the police officers kindly confiscate the offending items.'

Gawie seemed about to return to his feet before thinking better of it and remaining seated.

It took several minutes for the blood ropes to be handed over, whereupon Judge Ludorf resumed his opening remarks.

‘In the three months leading up to this trial there has been a great deal of regrettable publicity surrounding this case and I am therefore not surprised that the prosecution has asked for the court to appoint two assessors to work with me rather than a jury. I need not remind you that this is a court of law and only the evidence presented here will be assessed. The gallery will remain silent throughout and I would ask the members of the press to report the proceedings accurately and to refrain from the sort of hyperbole they have indulged in over the past weeks.' He cast a stern look at the packed press gallery. ‘Although, alas, this last request is not enforceable and to rely on your good judgement and probity is, I fear, a contradiction in terms.' The judge had got his first laugh. He brought his gavel down several times demanding silence and then announced, ‘I now ask the clerk of the court to announce the session.'

The clerk of the court was a small, thin, pop-eyed man with several long strands of dark hair derived from above the ear on the left side of his head and combed across to the right and stuck down on his bald pate. He commenced to read out the details of the murder charge against the Van Schalkwyk Seven.

Immediately after he had completed the indictment, Gawie Grobler jumped to his feet. ‘My Lord, if it pleases the court, my clients have asked if Meneer Frans van Schalkwyk, the senior member of the family, may be allowed to answer the majority of the questions from the prosecution on behalf of the entire family.'

I stood up. ‘Objection, My Lord.'

A grin appeared on the faces of the judge and his two assessors. ‘Nice one, Advocate Grobler, objection sustained. I caution you that your request is improper, you well know that the defence is entitled to call whomsoever of the accused they require to the witness stand.'

‘With the greatest respect, My Lord,' Gawie persisted, ‘one of my clients, Mevrou Van Schalkwyk, is too ill to take the witness stand or even to climb the few steps into it. I ask for leave to submit to the court a medical certificate from a heart specialist to this effect.' He stepped forward and handed the certificate to the clerk of the court.

‘Your client may take the oath from where she is seated and I am sure the prosecution will not object to cross-examining her from where she feels most comfortable,' the judge replied.

He glanced over to me, and I nodded and, half rising, said, ‘Certainly, My Lord.' I knew immediately where Gawie was heading: he intended to remove Mevrou as a witness if the case seemed to be going against him. He would claim her heart condition forbade her to continue. She was by nature a contrary and unpredictable woman and unlikely to stick to a strict line of enquiry and he didn't want a rogue female elephant on his hands. Mevrou had always been obese but now she was gargantuan, taking the place of three people on a courtroom bench. She seemed to be permanently breathless and Lieutenant Van Niekerk's description of her as a beached whale was entirely appropriate. I must say, if appearances counted for anything, then Gawie had a point. I wrote a note to Janine and passed it to her, requesting her to ask Professor Mustafa to be on stand-by to examine Mevrou if Gawie decided to pull this trick.

While all these goings-on seemed to have taken a long time, in fact they occupied less than half an hour. Judge Ludorf announced that I was presenting a private prosecution and that there would be no Crown prosecutor present. ‘You may now outline the case for the prosecution,' he said, nodding at me.

‘My Lord, Your Honours, at the heart of this case is the question of whether there is a clear motive for the murder of Mattress Malokoane. There has been a great deal of speculation that no such motive exists, that only one of the accused knew the victim, but not, in any sense, very well. Furthermore, in her work capacity she had no direct dealings with him. I intend to present evidence and show clearly that a motive for murder
did
exist in her mind and that she consequently involved six members of her family in a conspiracy to murder Mattress Malokoane. Thank you, My Lord, Your Honours.'

‘Thank you, Meneer Fitzsaxby,' the judge said. ‘I now call on the counsel for the defence.'

‘My Lord,
Edelagbares
,' Gawie said, nodding at each assessor in turn. ‘The defence intends to demonstrate that my clients are the victims of circumstance and conjecture. My learned friend has already pointed out that this case hinges on one person in particular, Mevrou Van Schalkwyk, who was, at the time of the murder, the matron of The Boys Farm. If, as I intend to prove, she did not instigate the murder of Mattress Malokoane she could not have coerced her six brothers into becoming involved. I intend to show that there exists no case against any of my clients. Thank you, My Lord,
Edelagbares
.'

It was all pretty predictable stuff: I say she's guilty, he says she's not, the opening to pretty well every criminal court case that ever was.

Judge Ludorf turned to me. ‘You may proceed with the prosecution, Meneer Fitzsaxby.'

‘I call Meneer Kobus Vermaak to the witness stand,' I announced.

Court cases are, out of necessity, tedious and drawn-out procedures and I have already written about much of the evidence I was able to gather, so I won't go into every small detail and procedure.

Over the next hour I led Pissy as he told the entire story of the incident involving the three of us at the big rock, leading to the intervention of Mattress where he lifted Fonnie du Preez and dashed him against the rock. I then turned to the judge and assessors. ‘My Lord, you will have gathered that I was personally involved in the testimony you have just heard from Meneer Vermaak. I now ask permission to retain the witness while I take the oath myself and enter the witness stand and I respectfully ask that my assistant, Juffrou Janine De Saxe, act temporarily as counsel for the prosecution in order to question me.'

Gawie Grobler leapt to his feet just as I expected he might. ‘Objection, My Lord!'

Judge Ludorf said, ‘State your objection, Meneer Grobler.'

‘My Lord, this testimony hinges on the recall of events given by a seven-year-old child. If it is taken from the original police interview, my learned friend knows that the testimony and evidence provided by a child of this age is not admissible in a court of law. I therefore ask that the prosecution be prevented from appearing as a witness in his own prosecuting procedure.'

Judge Ludorf turned to the two assessors and they spoke with each other for a few moments before he turned back to face the court. ‘You may be technically correct, Meneer Grobler, but my learned colleagues and myself would like to hear the evidence whereupon we will decide whether to strike it from the record or not. Objection overruled.'

I took my place on the witness stand and was sworn in. ‘Meneer Fitzsaxby, can you tell the court what happened immediately after Mattress Malokoane intervened at the big rock and the accident to Fonnie du Preez occurred.'

‘Objection, My Lord, it was
not
an accident but the result of a deliberate action by Mattress Malokoane.'

‘Objection sustained, Juffrou De Saxe will rephrase the question.'

‘Meneer Fitzsaxby, can you tell the court what happened immediately after the incident when Fonnie du Preez was hurt?'

I then told the court how I'd gone to Frikkie Botha together with Mattress and told him what had happened, of how I had immediately been warned to say nothing or Tinker would be killed, whereupon Frikkie Botha had gone directly to the big rock and instructed us not to follow.

Judge Ludorf turned back to his two assessors and there was a fair bit of nodding going on as they talked quietly. He then turned back. ‘The evidence we have just heard would appear to be pertinent to the case and is not subject to misinterpretation, even by a seven-year-old. It may be included in the record of proceedings.'

I returned Pissy to the witness stand and he told the court that, with Frikkie Botha's connivance, they'd invented the accident to Fonnie du Preez. He told how they'd evolved the story of how Fonnie stood on the rock urinating and had stepped back, slipping on a loose crust of rock that had caused him to fall and sustain a broken arm and nose and require stitches to the head. Then later, under intense interrogation from Mevrou in the sick room, Pissy had told the truth: that he had been regularly sexually assaulted by Fonnie du Preez, but then he'd lied again and told her that it had been the pig boy who had indecently assaulted him, that the real reason Fonnie had been injured was that he'd decided to ‘teach the
kaffir
a lesson' and had come off second-best.

‘Meneer Vermaak, did you have reason to believe that Mevrou Van Schalkwyk believed you when you said the pig boy had sexually assaulted you?'

‘
Ja
, definitely, I was crying a lot and she started to comfort me and I knew she believed me.'

‘How did she comfort you, in what manner?'

‘She pulled my head into her chest and held me.'

‘Did she say any words to comfort you?'

‘
Ja
.'

‘Can you tell the court what she said? Can you remember her exact words?'

‘She said,
“
Shhsh,
skattebol
. . . that
kaffir
is already dead, you hear.” '

There was a sudden uproar in the gallery and Judge Ludorf banged his gavel and demanded silence. During this commotion I glanced at Mevrou who appeared to show no immediate reaction. Or perhaps her enormous size made it difficult for her to move, and her eyes were set so deep within the folds of her cheeks that they appeared as tiny pinpricks of light. When the silence returned, she suddenly pointed an arm the size of a large ham at Pissy. ‘He lies, that one
always
lies!' she shouted.

‘The accused will refrain from shouting out in court,' Judge Ludorf admonished, whereupon he adjourned the proceedings for lunch, announcing that the court would convene again at half past two. It is traditional for opposing barristers to meet before the court opens proceedings in the morning and to also take luncheon together. This is so each side can outline the line of enquiry they're going to take in the next session. I had arrived at the High Court early so as to engage Gawie in a mutual briefing session prior to convening in the judge's chambers for a pre-trial run-down. Gawie either deliberately, or because he was running late, arrived just in time to go into Judge Ludorf's chambers. As we adjourned for luncheon Gawie's junior, Herman Venter, approached to say Meneer Grobler apologised but would be unable to lunch with me. I explained that I thought it was important.

‘I regret, but Advocate Grobler is simply not able to attend,' he insisted.

I should point out that this mutual and fraternal briefing is not mandatory, but I wished to inform him of the existence of the canned-fruit jar. I confess I was annoyed. Gawie had chosen, on several occasions during the lead-up to the trial, to demonstrate an uncooperative and unnecessarily arrogant stance towards me. I had put this down to his playing to the expectations of the people in Duiwelskrans and the Afrikaans press. Rather petulantly, I'm afraid, I turned to Venter. ‘Would you please give a message to my learned friend: tell him he still needs to read the shit squares if he wants to know what's going on in the world.'

After lunch with Janine, I resumed questioning Pissy. He repeated how he confessed to Mevrou that he'd been sexually assaulted by the pig boy and she had then called the superintendent, Meneer Prinsloo, and consequently Doctor Van Heerden had been called in to examine him. Pissy then told of the subsequent meeting involving himself and Fonnie du Preez, Frikkie Botha, Meneer Prinsloo and Mevrou, where Frikkie had done a backflip and feigned surprise at the news of Mattress sexually assaulting Pissy, pretending to believe this new version of what had happened at the big rock, then how the boxing match had been arranged to teach Mattress Malokoane a lesson before handing him over to the police.