Update: Steyn siblings laugh in court
Magistrate believes the State has a strong case against the three accused for the gruesome Krugersdorp triple murders.
The packed Court K at the Roodepoort Magistrates’ Court was not disappointed this morning (13 July) when three of the four accused in the #TripleMurder case were once again denied bail and returned to captivity.
Update: No bail for #TripleMurder suspects
The four suspects accused of the murders of Anthony Scholefield, Kevin McAlpine and Hanle Lategan made their way up the stairs and took the stand. Kruger, with a Bible in his hand, entered last.
Magistrate Delize Smith stood by her ruling of no photos or recordings to be taken by the media while the court is in session.
Magistrate Smith wasted no time, moving quickly into the bail application, and the court heard the statements of accused one, three and four – Christiaan Kruger, 29; Leroux Steyn, 20, and Marcel Steyn, 18 again. The remaining accused, a 32-year-old man (still referred to only as accused two) reiterated that he will not be applying for bail. He was then excused from the stand and returned to the court’s cells where he will remain in custody.
The photo of the tied-up body of Lategan, which was found on accused four’s cellphone, was mentioned a few times and said to indicate that the accused feels no remorse for the crime.
Read more: What happened hours before Hanle went missing?
The magistrate was clearly highly disgusted when she had to stop reading the statement from the State in order to ask Advocate Da Silva (for the defence) to control his client, accused three, who was sitting next to his sister, accused four, and laughing. “They won’t do it again,” Da Silva told the magistrate.
Magistrate Smith’s main concern was the contradictions in the statements of the accused versus the State’s statement.
Read more: Siblings arrested in connection with #TripleMurders
Although the State has positively linked the siblings to the murders by means of CCTV footage of money being withdrawn from an ATM in Krugersdorp West, both indicated in their statements that they will be pleading not guilty.
The magistrate also mentioned that two of the accused had cleaned up their social media pages after learning police were on their tracks, suggesting that this indicated they would try to disappear.
Furthermore, Magistrate Smith stated both siblings are unemployed with no official address, which makes them a flight risk.
Two additional murders that took place in 2015 were also briefly mentioned. They may be linked to the current case.
“To strangle, tie up a victim and put him into a boot of vehicle and to dump the body is gruesome,” said Magistrate Smith. She said the State has a strong case indeed, and concluded by denying bail again.
The accused could possibly face three life sentences for the three murders, plus additional imprisonment for the other counts against them.
The four will remain in custody and will appear again on 13 October.
Read more about the triple murders:
Triple murder case moved to Roodepoort
Trial by Facebook? Suspects found guilty on social media
One arrested for triple murder
Court hears how accused played their parts in murders
