Shocking revelations about the medical condition of Orderick Lucas emerged at the Western Cape High Court on Tuesday as the defence questioned his mother about the multiple illnesses recorded by doctors in the months leading up to his death.
The body of the one-year-old boy was found dumped in a drain in Kleinvlei a week after he had gone missing in April 2019.
His mother’s friend, Melvin Volkwyn, is on trial for his murder.
On Tuesday, mom Davedine was cross-examined.
Wearing a leopard print dress, the anxious 29-year-old was made to answer questions about the condition of her son before his death, the cause of which has not yet been revealed.
Davedine sukkeled to answer some questions, often contradicting herself.
During her testimony on Monday, the mom confessed that she smoked drugs with Volkwyn on several occasions and that her child was removed from her care three months before his death after his arm was broken.
She blamed Volkwyn for this injury, but defence attorney Susan Kuun said according to her client, Davedine had been smoking buttons when she broke Orderick’s arm.
“The hospital report says the mother presented the main problem as fever, diarrhoea and dehydration, but earlier you testified that the baby was with Mel and you noticed something was wrong with the arm and you took the baby to the hospital,” said Kuun.
“But the report says the doctor noticed the right arm was broken.
“According to Mr Volkwyn, when you arrived there was already a problem with the arm.
“He said you explained to him that you had an accident with the child. You smoked a button and jy het die kind opgeruk by die arm, like violently.”
Davedine denied this and said: “Daai is nie korrek nie. As ek dit gedoen het sou sy arm uitgeruk [dislocated] gewees het. Die bene was gebreek.”
However, Kuun read out the medical report where the doctor indicated that the arm was indeed dislocated and the shoulder fractured, which could have been caused by violently picking the child up, to which Davedine agreed.
After this injury, Orderick was removed from his mother’s care by a court and he was placed with Davedine’s mother, Cornelia Scheepers.
Despite the court order, Davedine admitted on Monday that Orderick was sometimes in her care, like on 24 March 2019, the day he went missing.
Kuun read out several different medical reports from Eerste River Day Hospital which indicated that despite Davedine’s claim that her mother looked well after Orderick, he had multiple illnesses including pneumonia, septic sores on his head and nose, ulcers on his genitals and anus as well as the pubic area, and suffered malnutrition and weight loss.
This prompted follow-up visit requests by doctors with each report saying Davedine had not returned for treatments.
When questioned about this, Davedine stumbled, saying she could not remember, while Volkwyn smirked in the dock.