This really P's me off.

[Carl Wrbka]

 
From News24.co.za

Inmates sang to drown screams
22/10/2008 22:25  - (SA)   

Vryheid - A Vryheid game rancher was being sodomised in a police cell while the inmates were singing, the Pietermaritzburg High Court was told on Wednesday.
The incident, which took place after midnight on January 27 2006, so traumatised the manager, Zacharia Duvenhage, that he has moved to Botswana to try to forget.
Game rancher, Etienne van Wyk, is claiming R1.2m from the Minister of Safety and Security.
Van Wyk and Duvenhage were put into the Hlobane police cells after they were arrested for transporting Van Wyk's game animals without a licence.
Duvenhage was not sodomised but was assaulted and he is claiming R350 000 from the minister.
Their counsel, Advocate Gerrie Roberts SC, said the acting police station commander was asleep and was not woken by screams of Van Wyk while he was being sodomised.

Violent criminals

Van Wyk and Duvenhage were first held in a cell on their own, but three female suspects were put into that cell and Van Wyk and Duvenhage moved to the cell with 14 inmates.
Evidence given was that they could have been held in other cells, the magistrate court cells or taken to other police stations. Three vans were available to move them to other stations.
The 14 inmates included suspects predisposed to violence, Robert said.
Suspects included a man charged with three murders and arson, and six men charged with rape. Other suspects were arrested for car theft and housebreaking.
Both Van Wyk and Duvenhage have given permission for their names to be used in the media.
The minister is contesting their claims.

Broke into song

Roberts said that because the police station commander did not respond to Van Wyk's screams the inference was that he was asleep. Other policemen did not respond to the screams either.
Roberts said that the prescribed hourly inspections of the cells during their incarceration were not made.
The Vryheid district surgeon, Dr Senta Klingenberg, told the court that there was evidence of repeated penetration of Van Wyk. There were both external and internal tears.
She said that Duvenhage had two bruises on the head and on his back.
Roberts said that Van Wyk was sodomised at about 03:00 by one or more inmates while others broke into song. Judge Nic van der Reyden said that this was a ruse used by prisoners to mask the sound of a bar being sawn or a similar incident.

Gate locked, no response

Roberts said that Van Wyk managed to phone his wife who contacted the investigating officer in the game transport case.
The investigating officer went to the station and found the gate locked. He phoned the station's number and heard a phone ringing in the charge office, but no-one responded.
He sounded his vehicle hooter but there was no response and he climbed the locked gate and went into the charge office where he found the commander, an Inspector Mtshali, asleep at 03:55.
He took Van Wyk and Duvenhage to Vryheid district surgeon Dr Klingenberg.
She found tears, blood and bruising, indicating repeated penetration.

'Police must have known'

The former commander of the police station, Superintendent Isobel Weiss, told the court that assaults had been perpetrated in the cells and the policemen must have known about them.
She said that when inmates were singing, especially in the early hours, cells should be inspected because "something could be up".
Weiss would not have put suspects charged with the type of offence allegedly perpetrated by Van Wyk and Duvenhage in a cell with violent criminals.
The case continues on Thursday.

[Dalene Steenkamp (Coetzee)]

    And I am telling you now that nothing will happen to those inmates and the police will drag out this case and civil suit for ages.

They you ask why some people commit murder in cases like this!  If I were a man and something like this happened to me, I would for sure hunt them....  (I know  -  ....  do not take the law into your own hands  --   yeah, let me rather not say anything more.)

[Delia]

@ Dalene - you talk about taking the law into your own hands - i saw a classic case of street justice the other day.  I had just dropped my daughter off at kickboxing and as i was leaving the centre waiting to turn into Parklands main road, i see a group of labourers - painters, etc. who were working on a shop in the centre, dragging a guy from across the road. They had him by his arms and legs and were literally carrying him dodging and weaving through the traffic.  You could see they were on a mission and nothing was going to stop them. The ou being dragged/carried was screaming and kicking obviously trying to get away.  They got him into a little storeroom close by to where they were working, closed the door and left one guy outside to keep cavey - those inside climbed into him like there was no tomorrow - i could hear him screaming "nee, los my, los my" then silence, followed by more shouts and screams, then silence, then more screams, etc.....you get my drift...........anyway, a security guard from one of the shops nearby eventually strolled over to see what was up and all i could catch was that this guy they had in the room had stolen somebody's cellphone.

When i eventually drove off, i was so torn in two because even tho' i'm a pacifist at heart and don't condone violence, God forgive me but one part of me was cheering them on - they, just like the rest of us decent law abiding citizens, are obviously gatvol of the relentless crime that the cops do nothing about.  In a big way i understood their actions and motives - they knew the cops wouldn't be bothered about a stolen cellphone so they decided to teach the bastard a lesson themselves in their own way.  Sadly & ironically, it's sometimes that hard street justice that actually gets the message through to the criminals. If only the cops and courts realised that if they did their jobs properly, people wouldn't resort to this type of street justice and kangaroo courts.

Perhaps my thinking on this has to do with the fact that 4 years after my aunt's murder, we as a family are still awaiting closure..........over these 4 years the suspect was firstly granted bail of R500!!!!!!!........then he's appeared in court numerous times only for the case to be postponed each time for various reasons.........either the prosecutor wasn't ready, or they'd just changed prosecutor and the new one had to get up to speed, then they suddenly realised they hadn't processed important forensic evidence back then, then this, then that..................basically, the cops screwed up big time and who knows if we'll ever see the bastard behind bars.  Meantime, he's out on a measily R500 bail carrying on with his life and we sit and mourn and wonder, with so many unanswered questions....................