Inge Lotz Murder: Defence calls for discharge

Posted on July 31st, 2007 by James

Monday, July 3oth, saw the resumption of the Fred van der Vyver trial. Advocate Dup de Bruyn began arguing for his clients discharge at the end of the states case against him.

scales.jpgDup de Bruyn said that there was no evidence that Fred had any motive to kill Inge Lotz. He also had no plan or opportunity to have committed the murder. De Bruyn went on to say that there was no evidence that Fred had a guilty conscience after the killing.

He told of how Fred had collapsed in tears when told about the murder, how he kept the alleged murder weapon in his bakkie and even told the police about it. He further mentioned that Fred had willingly taken a lie detector test and had complained that the police were not acting quick enough.

In terms of the evidence, de Bruyn said that there was no evidence of blood or genetic material on the hammer and that the state had not proven that there was any link between the hammer and the murder at all.

The bloody shoe print was also brought up which de Bruyn described as a ‘a mess’.

His major motivation to the court in having the case discharged was that even if Fred presented no evidence at this stage, there could never be a finding of guilt based on any of the evidence given by the prosecution.

Dup de Bruyn was also highly critical of the police and said that they had been determined to nail Van der Vyver “come what will”. In regards to the fingerprint on the DVD case, he cast doubt on the fairness of it as the evidence had not been kept by the police and that further evidence had deliberately been witheld by them.

“In fact, it could be argued that there was fraud involved with the print.”

The State will reply to the defence application on Wednesday.

———————————————————

Comments:

As I said in an earlier article, I agree with what Dup de Bruyn said. The State made a huge mess of this case and I really can’t believe that they felt that they were even close to be ready for trial.

The lack of evidence in this case is really startling. As I have covered in the previous articles, there is not one bit of tangible proof that Fred was involved in the murder at all.

The farce over the shoe print was also startling. Did the State think that the defence would not check on the evidence and speak to the experts? To blatantly lie and try to deceive the court is unforgivable in any justice system. I sincerely hope that there is retribution for this.

As I have also said previously, this case has not been about whether Fred is guilty or innocent. Rather it has been about whether it was possible or impossible for him to have done it. The result is that even though this case will probably be ruled in Fred’s favour, there will always be that small part of doubt in my mind. Imagine what it would be like for the Lotz family.

At this stage I think that the State should just admit defeat and end the case against Fred. There is no logical reason why they should continue as it has been clearly obvious to all observers what the final result will be. Why waste tax payers money pursuing something that was lost long ago?

Blog South Africa

News, views, comments and opinions of South Africa