Murder accused David van Boven has fingered City of Cape Town’s Metro Police as the officers who allegedly tortured him into making a confession.
This was revealed at the Western Cape High Court on Monday as one of the men accused of killing UWC student Jesse Hess and her 85-year-old oupa Chris Lategan took the stand to testify against detectives of the SAPS Organised Crime Unit and Metro Police.
Their bodies were found after an alleged house robbery on 30 August 2019 in their Parow flat. Both had been strangled to death, while the state has revealed that Jesse was also raped during the attack.
David, an alleged member of the 28s gang, was arrested a month later after he was identified as the suspect who raped a 16-year-old girl in Hanover Park.
He went on the run and was found hiding in Struisbaai.
The second accused Tasliem “Boontjie” Ambrose was arrested several days later.
Van Boven’s claims that he was choked and beaten by police officers has plunged the case into a trial within a trial as Judge Judith Cloete must now decide whether his confession to cops is admissible or not.
In his testimony, Van Boven revealed that he was arrested a month after the murders but never charged.
He says on 13 November 2019, he was arrested again in Struisbaai and taken to Macassar Police Station.
The next day he met the investigating officer, Lieutenant-Colonel Adrian Pretorius, who told him he was being charged for a rape case in Hanover Park.
He says Pretorius took him to Bellville where they met a group of Metro Police officers and they returned to Macassar.
“He [Pretorius] asked me about the stuff and told me about the Parow case and I told him I don’t know what he is talking about,” Van Boven testified.
“I asked him about that fingerprint that he told me he found on a cup for the Parow case and asked him why he didn’t arrest me and that is when the Metro Police told me I am keeping me slim and they started klapping me.”
Van Boven said his hands were cuffed and a bag put over his head while an officer tied a belt around his neck and started choking him until he became unconscious.
He claimed the officers were instructed by Pretorius to not cause any injuries to his face.
He said because cops insisted he sold the stolen items from Jesse’s flat, he decided to take them for a gat and took them to various places but they were unable to recover the items.
“I took them on a wild goose chase because they were asking me for stuff I never had.”
He said angry cops continued to moer him, causing him to pass out.
“I never made a confession or gave them anything for that statement. The Metro Police pulled my hands behind my back and blocked off my airways so I couldn’t breathe, so I signed,” Van Boven said.
Colonel Eddie Clark, who took the confession, denied Van Boven was tortured, saying he was “dumbstruck” by the statements.
However, he admitted that the confession was not recorded on video and that Van Boven was not taken to a district surgeon before the statement was taken.