MARIUS Nagel (23), who is facing attempted murder, murder and rape charges after the disappearance and death of Ella Sophia Potgieter, known as Elsie , will be sent for mental observation at Fort Napier Hospital next year.
Nagel is facing an attempted murder charge for a stabbing incident at a pub in Southport on October 24, and further charges of the murder and rape of Elsie, who was found dead after being missing for five days last month.
Bail was denied Nagel by Magistrate Bryan Munilall in the Port Shepstone Regional Court last Friday, and the case was transferred to the Ramsgate High Court.
Yesterday (Wednesday) Judge Mahendra Chetty postponed the case for Nagel to appear in the Pietermaritzburg High Court on June 12, 2015, when he will be taken to Fort Napier. “It is in the interests of justice that Nagel be referred for observation,” he said.
Nagel appeared in the High Court on Monday this week but the case was postponed to Wednesday due to load- shedding. Before Judge Chetty could postpone the case Nagel said he ‘wanted to plead guilty’ and that his ‘lawyer was telling him what to do’.
However, when he appeared on Wednesday, his Legal Aid attorney, Yvonne Khuzwayo, brought an application in terms of Section 77 and 78 of the Criminal Procedure Act.
She said that when Nagel was younger he had been sexually abused and assaulted by his stepfather. She said he had been involved in boxing and now suffered from blackouts.
She added that he had not been professionally assessed and suggested that his blackouts could have been as a result of those experiences.
Attorney Khuzwayo said that the problem was that when she was taking instructions from Nagel with regards to the day of the incident, there were certain times that Nagel could account for, and those he couldn’t account for.
As a result, she felt he needed observation.
