It was a game of denials on Tuesday as alleged wife killer Rob Packham’s testimony came under scrutiny at the Cape High Court where he was cross-questioned on his version of events on the day his wife, Gill, was killed.
The 58-year-old Constantia businessman lost his cool on the stand as he appeared moeilik and interrupted State prosecutor, Susan Galloway, as she questioned him.
In new revelations, Packham claimed that he visited an orchard nursery near the Diep River Train Station on 22 February 2018 to look for Gill, after a cellphone tower picked up his phone signal in the area.
Gill’s charred body was discovered hours later at the train station.
Packham also denied asking Twizza colleague, Lodewyk Janse van Rensburg, to lie for him.
Galloway said after Gill’s body was found, Packham called and asked his colleague to say he was at the cooldrink factory at 8.30am on that day because he was “under scrutiny”.
But Packham says news reports had “sensationalised” his request to his colleague, as he was just informing him of what he had said.
Galloway also questioned him about the call he made at 8.30am to his former jolmeit using his secret phone, where he told her that he had overslept that morning, despite telling cops that he left the house just after 7 am to go car shopping.
The court heard the couple had marriage problems and Packham admitted on Tuesday that he hid the secret phone in his house and that Gill never found it.
“So you admit that you hid the phone from your wife even though you said you were 100% committed to sorting things out,” Galloway stated.
Packham also denied changing the tyres of his Audi Q5 despite photographic evidence.
In pictures taken in February, the tyre tread matched those found on the scene of the crime, but when officers photographed his car in August again, the tyres had a different tread.
According to cellphone expert, Warrant Officer Reece Harvey, Packham’s phone was picked up in the vicinity of Diep River Train Station at 2.37pm that day.
The officer had marked this as the time that Packham was “looking for a dumping spot”.
Packham has said that he was at home after 2 pm and then went to Hout Bay.
However, on Tuesday after being confronted with the cellphone records, he claimed that he had actually gone to the Little Orchard Nursery first.
He also told the court he was “not inclined” to share the PIN number of his work iPhone with police as he was “not happy with all the information out there”.
“Where would [the investigating officer] have gotten that information that you had forgotten the PIN?”
“I don’t know. I don’t remember,” Packham retorted.