Blog South Africa

FRUIT OF A POISONED TREE
A true story of murder and the miscarriage of justice

By: Antony Altbeker

(To be released in all major bookshops and on Kalahari.net by 24 May 2010)

In June 2005, Fred van der Vyver, a young actuary and the son of a wealthy Eastern Cape farming family, was charged with murdering his girlfriend, Inge Lotz, allegedly bludgeoning her to death with a hammer as she lay on a couch in her lounge.

The case against Van der Vyver seemed overwhelming. His behaviour at the time of the murder appeared suspicious and incriminating, and a letter, penned by Inge on the morning of her death, suggested that the two had been fighting.

But it was forensic evidence that seemed to prove his guilt: his fingerprints were found at the scene, one of his shoes was matched to a blood stain on the bathroom floor, and traces of blood were found on an ornamental hammer that had been given to him by the victim’s parents.

And yet, in one of the most sensational and controversial murder trials in South African legal history, Van der Vyver’s lawyers sought to turn the tables on the police, accusing them of fabricating evidence and lying to the judge.

In Fruit of a Poisoned Tree, prize-winning author Antony Altbeker takes you into the heat of this epic courtroom battle. Altbeker’s eye-witness account of the trial presents the reader with all the evidence and testimony of the trial, while also placing it in the context of a society and a justice system that are
being stretched to breaking point.
[Read more →]

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Today I received this email along with a copy of the press release below:

………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

We would appreciate it if you would publish the enclosed press statement on behalf of our client in your publications as soon as possible.

We thank you in anticipation.

BRIAN LOWE
LOWE & PETERSEN ATTORNEYS
………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

LOTZ & LOTZ v FB van der Vyver

We have been requested by our client, Mr Fred van der Vyver, to issue the following statement:

For the past few months, a campaign has been waged in the press against our client Mr. Fred van der Vyver in which it has been stated and reported widely that Porfessor and Mrs. Lotz, the parents of Inge Lotz, have found “new evidence” against Mr van der Vyver. Most of these statements have been made by a Ms Dani Cohen as spokesperson for Prof & Mrs Lotz.

Among the statements so made is the allegation that “new, crucial evidence” has been found against Mr van der Vyver to “establish he murdered Inge”.

As a consequence of these press statements Counsel for Mr van der Vyver requested further particulars for trial to the claim instituted against him by Prof. and Mrs. Lotz, referring specifically to Ms Cohen’s statements and requesting the plaintiffs to set out fully what new material fact or facts plaintiffs will rely upon in their action.

In response to such request, the legal representatives of Prof. and Mrs. Lotz’s have replied as follows:

“There are no new material facts upon which the plaintiffs intend to rely.”

Both the request for particulars and the reply thereto are filed at Court.

A letter reserving Mr van der Vyver’s rights against Prof and Mrs Lotz, and Ms Cohen, in regard to the above defamatory statements and the damage that Mr van der Vyver is suffering, will soon be served on the attorneys of Prof and Mrs Lotz.

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Despite the fact that the courts found Fred van der Vyver not only ‘not guilty’ but also ‘innocent’ of murdering Inge Lotz, the parents of Inge are now suing Fred for approximately R4 million each!

Some people have claimed that this is similar to the OJ Simpson trial but there are big differences. In the OJ trial, there was always an element of doubt as to the juries findings. These doubts were based on race issues (evident in juror statements after the trial), evidence that was not presented and even some doubt concerning evidence that was presented in the trial. In the van der Vyver case, the case was far more compelling that he was in fact innocent of the charges.

Personally I think that suing after the case has been decided is wrong and really should not be allowed. I am talking about when a ‘not guilty’ verdict is reached only. A civil court could reach a different decision to a criminal court, because while the latter had to find a suspect guilty “beyond reasonable doubt”, a civil court could find a suspect guilty on “the balance of probabilities”. Doesnt this fly in the face of what a criminal trial is all about?

We all acknowledge the pain and suffering caused to victims families and we whole heartedly sympethise with them. However a civil trial, after the criminal trial has found a defendant ‘not guilty’, somehow suggests spite on the part of the victims family. It also hows that they are not satisfied with the result of the criminal trial, which of course in this case is to be expected. One wonders why they do not rather sue the police for running a shoddy investigation.

I do not think that the Lotz’s reached this decision on their own. As Dup de Bruyn, Fred’s advocate said, he knows who is behind this action and what their motive is. I feel that the Lotz family are now being used by other individuals in order to further their own agenda.

My personal feeling is that the Stellenbosch police are possibly behind it. If the civil action works in the Lotz’s favour, then they will be ‘redeemed’ in the eyes of not only the family but the community at large. This could be just a mere case of disaster management strategy. They can gain credibility because of it – a case of ‘the fish didn’t really get away’. This would somehow justify their investigation.

It would be very interesting if this motive did come out in the court case, because if it is the cops, they will have an aweful amount to lose on this gamble!

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It has been reported that the police are going to charge Werner Carolus with obstructing and defeating the ends of justice. Apparently a docket was registered in Stellenbosch last week which paves the way for the charges.

During the trial Carolus had confessed to police that he had burgled Inge’s flat and that he witnessed his friends killing her.

Daryl Els and Christiaan Botha, the private investigators briefly hired by the Van der Vyver family had decided to investigate the matter further, with Els interviewing Carolus in prison where he got a confession and identification of the others allegedly involved.

Botha said that he had sent his findings to national Police Commissioner, Jackie Selebi’s office and also to the Independent Complaints Commission and that he hoped that they would investigate it further.

So now we have another standoff between the police and the former van der Vyver team. Who will ultimately prevail? Will we finally discover the truth?

I don’t have a lot of faith in the Selebi angle. Selebi is currently a tad too concerned with his own leal problems to bother about this case. Maybe we will see some result from the IDC.

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Dr Chris Landman of the State President’s Commission for the Rights of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities (CRL Commission) told the Cape Argus that the government needs to review the Lotz murder case and investigate the conduct of the State investigators.

He further said that if the investigation revealed that the investigators have acted irregularly, then all their earlier cases need to be reviewed in case other innocent people have been jailed.

I totally agree with Dr Landman. Most of us have known for a very long time that in many cases the police and/or prosecution are corrupt and mishandle cases. My hope is that other people will stand up and condemn the actions of the State and police in the handling of this case in particular and in the way they handle cases generally.

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Daryl Els and Christian Botha, private detectives appointed by the family of Fred van der Vyver, have now also laid charges of intimidation and obstruction of justice against two police officers. They claim that these officers know who killed Inge Lotz and all the details, yet did nothing about it.

Recently they said a witness to the murder has made a second statement to them in the presence of his lawyer. This witness is currently in prison on drug and murder charges.

Els told news sources that according to this witness, three people entered her apartment and killed her. One of these was an acquaintance of hers.

“According to the witness … there were six people in total, but three entered the flat,” he said.

“We have reason to believe their motive was to get money for drugs. All six are known to us and most of them are in jail at the moment waiting to appear on similar charges of murder, robbery and drug dealing.”

Els further said that the reason nothing was stolen from the flat was that ’something had gone wrong’ and the killers fled without taking anything.

The witness had been vistied in prison by the two police officers shortly after Fred was charged and told the witness that he must ‘change his story’ or face the consequences. This was after he had made a statement to them in 2005 already implicating himself in the murder.

Although no names are mentioned, I am fairly certain that this witness is none other than Werner Carolus who I reported on in June in the article: Inge Lotz Murder: The Werner Carolus Story.

If these allegations are true and this sequence of events did happen, it calls into question the motivation of the police in charging Fred. Did they do it to ’save face’? Did they dislike Fred for whatever reason? Were they too lazy to pursue other theories?

I hope that a lot more will come out at the subsequent trials (assuming there will be any!).

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The Inge Lotz murder case has just gotten a whole lot stranger with Lotz private investigator laying charges of defeating the ends of justice and of perjury against key investigators who probed the murder.

Private investigator Niel van Heerden was appointed by Lotz’s family to investigate her murder soon after she was found dead in her Stellenbosch flat on March 16, 2005. He was later removed from the investigation at the insistence of the police investigators.

He accused them of withholding pertinent information from the court. He further accused a third person of perjury as he alleges that that person blatantly lied in court.

The three identities have not been released for legal reasons.

Director Novela Potelwa, spokesperson for provincial police commissioner Mzwandile Petros has confirmed the charges saying: “We are compelled to investigate all charges and will do so.”

Van Heerden said that the actions of the three could have led to life imprisonment of an innocent person.

In his statement he said that evidence he had collected had never been taken into account.

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Fred has been found not guilty … at a cost. Reports are that his family spent R9 – 10 million to prove it to the court.
scales.jpg
They brought in four expert witnesses from around the world, had a team of attorneys and lawyers, private investigators and miscellaneous other expenses. It is no wonder that the cost was so high. After all, what loving parent would not pay everything they had to ensure their child had the best defence possible?

Fred is lucky. He comes from a section of the population that has access to this kind of money. I can’t but help thinking of the millions of other South Africans who do not have access to the same defence as Fred did. Do they get a fair shot at proving their innocence?

Without a good defence, the police have carte blanche in manufacturing evidence, presenting flimsy evidence before the court and/or not bothering with a good investigation. When this repetitively happens, they are exposed as incompetent when someone with money stands up to them – as in this case.

An additional problem is that Legal Aid is so overworked that they probably can not give each case the full attention that it deserves. Added to this are the budget restraints. Would Legal Aid spend millions to bring the best possible witnesses to court? Would they even bother with getting local experts?

The result is a badly defended case and a high probability that the defendant will end up being imprisoned for a crime they did not commit. In our prisons there could be thousands of innocent people who have been wrongly accused and convicted but without the financial means to prove it.

Louis van der Vyver is probably going to sue the police to recoup some of his losses. But also, in his words:

“Having endured what we did, we’ve got a tremendous sensitivity about what this could do to any other person. We would like to do whatever we can to address the [problems in the] system and prevent or limit such a thing happening to anybody else.”

I applaud that he draws attention to this problem. Yet shouldn’t we as a society be doing more?

I feel very strongly that it is high time that the government takes a very close look into the workings of the police, NPA, Legal Aid and the convictions of people currently in prison. Similar action has taken place in the UK over the past several years, resulting in quite a number of convictions being declared ‘unsafe’ and subsequently being quashed.

It is about time we had reform in all aspects of the criminal justice system in South Africa. Maybe then we can live in a law-abiding country! Maybe then people will respect the legal system.

I will end this article with a couple of famous quotes:

It is far better that ten guilty persons escape than one innocent suffer
-Sir William Blackstone

Laws grind the poor, and rich men rule the law
-Oliver Goldsmith

The jury, passing on the prisoners life, may, in the sworn twelve have a thief or two guiltier than him they try
-William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure

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Now that Fred van der Vyver has been found not guilty, one wonders what the fallout will be. In latest media reports it is speculated that the van der Vyver family could sue the police for up to R20-million in damages for wrongful arrest, malicious prosecution, the cost of his defence, loss of income and damage to his reputation.

However I feel that a lot more should happen. Certain of the police should be arrested and charged for defeating the ends of justice at the very least. This will send a very clear message to the police to do their jobs properly!

First up should be former police footprint expert Bruce Bartholomew. He blatantly lied and mislead not only the court but also the state team and his superiors. He would have gotten away with the lies had Bodziak not heard of it and contacted the defence team. Judge van Zyl called his testimony “unreliable and misleading”.

Second up is the police ballistics expert Frans Maritz. He presented misleading information on the ornamental hammer by not mentioning that it had bent on the first strike during tests on the pigs carcass. He then replaced the bent hammer with another identical one for presentation in the court. Judge van Zyl said that this “bordered on the unprofessional and that his presentation in court was “unscientific”.

(Rest of post unrecoverable)

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During the court summary in the Inge Lotz trial, Justice van Zyl was highly critical of the police handling of the case.

He called more than one of the cops testimony “unreliable”, “evasive” and “dishonest”. He also stated that some aspects of the investigation were “unscientific”, “incompetent” and “unprofessional”.

In addition he said that the state had in all respects failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that Van der Vyver had a motive to kill Lotz or that he had been on the murder scene.

Van Zyl rejected the state’s circumstantial evidence of tension between the couple as a murder motive and Van der Vyver’s supposed “strange behaviour” before and after the murder, and the forensic evidence which the state said linked Van der Vyver to the scene.

These are all things we have covered in this blog in previous articles.

Judge van Zyl then pronounced that Fred van der Vyver was found not guilty.

Fred stood frozen for a moment before raising his head in what looked like a silent prayer of thanks and began crying. His supporters erupted into cheers of joy.

Jan and Juanita Lotz looked stunned at the other end of the courtroom as this chapter closed in the murder of their daughter. Many people have expressed their support and wishes to the Lotz family in this difficult time, including many of the supporters of this website.

Jan Lotz declined to comment and just said that they were both tired and just wanted to go home. Juanita Lotz smiled bravely as she said that she would accept the judgement of the court. They left shortly afterwards, supported by friends.

Speaking to the press, Fred van der Vyver said that he was looking forward to getting his life back together. When congratulated on the acquittal, Fred answered “This isn’t really something one can be congratulated on. I am just very relieved it is over.”

“It has been a trying time, but I don’t want to go into too much detail right now. I will comment on it later. I am just very relieved and grateful. I want to go back to work, but I haven’t really decided on my future yet.”

Louis van der Vyver, Fred’s father, declined to comment and said that defence attorney William Booth would make a statement on the family’s behalf.

Fred, his parents Carien and Louis, his brothers Dawie and Alfons hugged and kissed friends and relatives on the pavement opposite the court before moving on to their regular lunch restaurant.

Attorney William Booth made a short statement: “We’re all very relieved. It was a long court case. Emotionally, the family has gone through a great deal. Financially, it was also a major thing: They hired me, Barry Pienaar, Terry Price, Dup de Bruyn and, towards the end, Henri Viljoen – not to mention all the experts.”

He further added that police had a lot to learn from the case such as proper investigation, following proper procedure, abiding by the constitution and not homing in on one suspect once they thought they had a lead – in this case a fingerprint – but to investigate all their suspects properly.

Again these were some things covered earlier in this blog.

“We feel if the police had investigated properly, they would have caught the right culprit.” he said “We’re thinking of taking civil action against the state.”

There is however one question that still remains:

Who killed Inge Lotz?

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