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State advocate Carine Theunissen kicked off the court proceedings today by asking Fred whether he had been involved in the preparation for the trial. Fred answered that he had been.

She then asked whether he had read the witness statements, to which he asked her to be more specific. It appeared that she became irritated with him replying to her questions with questions.

She then asked whether Inge was “security conscious”.

“Mrs Lotz said that Inge always took care to lock her doors.”

Van der Vyver said he could not refute it.

Theunissen also questioned him in detail about whether Lotz put her cellphone on silent or vibrate, and whether he had ever been unable to get through to her.

Her questioning has a bearing on Van der Vyver’s testimony that he became worried about Lotz on the evening of her death when he was unable to reach her by phone at her Stellenbosch flat.

Fred told the court that on the evening of the 16 March, he became worried because he expected to speak to Inge and also expected her to be in her apartment. He did say that it was possible that Inge did sometimes go out without him knowing about it.

During the proceedings, Fred told the court about his work sessions at Old Mutual that he had attended in the days and hours before Inge was found murdered. He said that he and his colleagues were required to do training and that the day before he had done a presentation.

He then said that arrangements had been made so that he didn’t have to miss his morning classes at the university and that as usual he had spent the night at Inge’s apartment.

At one point Carine Theunissen chided Van der Vyver for speaking “particularly softly” – but was herself asked by the judge soon after to repeat a question he did not hear.

Fred became emotional when asked by defence advocate Viljoen about the SMS sent from his computer to Inge which had been signed “love you F”.

After composing himself, he testified that the SMS said that he had read the letter which Inge had given him that morning.

Viljoen then went chronologically through all the SMS and email communications to people that Fred had communicated with that day.

After the tea-break, while addressing the court about an email he began to type just prior to Inge’s body being found, Fred again broke down.

When asked by Viljoen if he had murdered Lotz, Van der Vyver directly and unemotionally answered: “No, I did not.”

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