FORMER senior traffic officer, Dave Middleton, will have to spend another two months behind bars before he appears again for trial in the Port Shepstone Regional Court.
Middleton’s defence advocate Jimmy Howse cross-questioned investigating officer Lieutenant Mandla Cele from Margate FCS as to why he never followed the ‘correct proceedings to obtain the relevant warrants to get the evidence the proper way’ from the mother who had ‘potentially illegally downloaded’ the photos.
Advocate Howse also pointed out that nowhere in Lt Cele’s statement does it describe how the mother transferred the photos from Middleton’s phone to hers.
Lt Cele denied this. “The mother had access to Dave’s cellphone where she noticed he keeps child pornography. She couldn’t do that without interfering with his cellphone,” Lt Cele replied.
Advocate Howse argued that the Lt Cele had obtained no court authority to permit the downloading of photos. However, Lt Cele, said he had got a search warrant and had given instructions to his expert team to download everything on the phone.
Chief magistrate Johan Bester postponed the matter last Thursday to October 6. Read more on this story here.
