Witness to Lientjie’s murder was intimidated, says officer
Emile Bouwer faces charges for the murder of his girlfriend, Lientjie Kruger, who died from assault injuries.
A witness to the murder of Lientjie Kruger wept in fear when she described being intimidated by friends of Lientjie’s boyfriend, Emile Bouwer, to investigating officer, Henning de Meyer.
Lientjie died in the Ncandu Park home she shared with Emile and their three children on March 8, the morning after the couple hosted a social braai in celebration of Emile’s 43rd birthday. Post-mortem results point to injuries sustained from assault as the cause of the death. The couple allegedly have a long history of domestic violence, and guests at the braai said they witnessed Emile beating Lientjie in the hours preceding her death.
Emile, a truck driver employed at Riverside Steel, has been in custody for several weeks after he was arrested and charged with Lientjie’s murder on March 20. He is currently waiting to hear the outcome of his bail application, which began in the Newcastle Magistrates C-Court on April 6.
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Presiding officer, Magistrate Sibisi was scheduled to announce her judgement on the bail application on Wednesday (April 8). However, she had no choice but to postpone the court proceedings in order to consider new information that arose about a witness being intimidated.
In-depth coverage of the bail application can be read in this week’s print edition of the Newcastle Advertiser. The article details numerous conflicting versions of how Lientjie died, as told by Emile.
“None of them are true,” stated Warrant Officer de Meyer.
WO de Meyer told the court that friends of Emile drove to the complex where a teenage witness resides, and circled her house slowly on Monday evening, the day Emile’s bail application began. The driver also leaned out of the window of the vehicle and stared at the witness in an intimidating manner, according to WO De Meyer.
‘When I went to the witness to obtain a statement about incident, she was crying. She is very scared. To me, that is intimidation. Why did they drive slowly around the witness’s house and look at her in a strange way?” he said.
Emile’s attorney, Khulani Biyela argued that the people who are suspected of intimidation were never asked what they were doing at the complex or why they were behaving strangely. He called the inference that they were sent by Emile ‘an assumption’.
“If they did actually interfere with the witness, this occurred while Emile was in custody, so has no bearing on the decision as to whether he should be granted bail or not. If he is granted bail, the court can set strict conditions not to interfere with witnesses. At the moment, can you really say Emile had anything to do with what happened to the witness, when no statement was obtained from the people who committed the act of intimidation, and nobody has been charged for intimidation?” asked Biyela.
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“We cannot say that he [Emile] was the one who sent them, but I did inform the court in my earlier address that the witnesses are scared and the State fears that indirect or direct intimidation or threats can occur if he is released,” countered State Prosecutor, Sibusiso Sangweni. “He is still in custody and causing problems. How much more do you think he will do, if released on bail?”
Sibisi concluded by saying that in light of the new evidence, she wished to reconsider the judgement she had prepared for that day. The case was postponed to April 14.
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