THE CASE against Charles Ridgway, who was charged for the alleged murder of a Kloof grandmother, was withdrawn last week at the Pinetown Regional Court 2.
The application by the state for further delay was described by the sitting magistrate, Stanley Hlophe, as being unreasonably harmful to the accused who Hlope said had been appearing for almost two years without the case moving any further.
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Murder
Jenny King was found dead in her Forest Hills home in the early hours of Saturday, 12 January by her daughter.
Jenny’s family, and others have staged silent protests outside the court each time the musician boyfriend of King, Charles Ridgway, appeared.
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Family and friends of both the victim and accused have previously expressed frustration at what they describe as the slow pace of the judicial system.
When the case was transferred to the regional court just over a year ago, all who were in the court seemed elated and expressed relief that the case seemed to be progressing.
ALSO READ: Murder of Kloof grandmother: Regional court trial date set
In September at the last appearance in Regional Court 2 at Pinetown Magistrate’s Court the defence requested that the postponement requested at that time be the final one.
At the time the defence counsel indicated that if certain documents which they had requested were still not forthcoming from the prosecution, they would push to have the charges quashed.
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National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) spokesperson for KwaZulu-Natal, Natasha Kara confirmed that the case had been abandoned and passed on the following comment from DPP KwaZulu-Natal, Adv. Elaine Zungu:
“The matter was withdrawn as the court refused the State’s request for a further remand. The defence had submitted representations to the prosecution to consider. On 2 October 2020, the defence submitted further representations to the DPP Office to deal with and the State required more time to deal with same, hence the request for a further date but the court refused.”
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At the time of going to press, the contents of this feature mirrored South Africa’s lockdown regulations.
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