Former attorney allegedly ‘admitted’ to killing his 4 children, court hears

A former attorney accused of killing his four young children allegedly admitted as much to his neighbour after the incident, the Polokwane High Court in Limpopo heard on Tuesday.

Lucas Phasha stands accused of killing his four children – Katlego, 9, Tebogo, 7, Tshepo, 5, and Adel, 3 – at his village in the Ga-Phasha area, Sekhukhune district, on 17 February 2020.

The State believes he killed the children as a result of anger at the mother of his children, claiming she had cheated on him.

He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

His neighbour, Alfred Mabitlela, told the court he received a call early in the morning from the accused, who told him that he had killed his four children.

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Mabitlela said he was close to Phasha since their high school days in the 1980s and they had been neighbours since 2010

.”He said to me, ‘Mabitlela, I have killed my children’. He said he had put the bodies of three children at one place and the other at Pololo.”

He said Phasha also provided his wife’s cell number to inform her about the killings because she was not answering his calls.

When asked by the prosecutor, Mashudu Mudau, what he did with the information, he said he went to the scene, with a group of people, where the bodies were discovered.

“The children were found at the exact spots where Phasha directed me. I didn’t know the children were killed before Phasha told me. He didn’t tell me the reason why he killed them,” Mabitlela said.

The court had earlier heard a trial-within-a-trial after the defence attorney, Lucky Mkhize, argued the evidence could be inadmissible because it had not been tested whether Phasha made the admission voluntarily to the neighbour.

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After some lengthy legal arguments, Judge Gerrit Muller ruled the evidence could be heard. Under cross-examination, Mkhize put it to Mabitlela that there was a plot to kill Phasha and his children over traditional leadership and mining disputes.

Mkhize suggested that the plot involved “some men” who frequently visited Mabitlela at his home.

“At some stage, his wife also tipped him about the plot,” Mkhize said.

Another witness, scholar transport provider Success Mamohale, told the court that Phasha, on the day of the killings, stopped the minibus and gave his children some “takeaway” food.

Mamohale said Phasha then asked that the children be dropped at his home because he had drinks he wanted to give them.He said it was the last day he saw the children.

The trial continues on Wednesday.

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