Joshlin went lacking from her house within the Middelpos casual settlement in Saldanha Bay on 19 February final 12 months.
(Govt mayor Andrè Truter/Fb)
The physician who examined accused quantity two within the trial in regards to the alleged kidnapping and trafficking of Joslin Smith has refuted claims that Stevano van Rhys sustained accidents after being detained by police in March 2024 and compelled to admit beneath duress.
“I inquired from Mr Van Rhyn myself whether or not he had sustained any accidents for the reason that earlier the J88 [form] was accomplished or any assault, which Mr Van Rhyn denied,” medical expert Tanya Zimri testified within the Western Cape excessive court docket sitting in Saldanha Bay on Friday.
Zimri was tasked to submit a J88 doc, used to report findings throughout medico-legal examinations, after Van Rhyn’s alleged confession into the disappearance in February 2024 of Joslin, who was six on the time.
Defence legal professionals say Jacquen “Boeta” Appollis and Van Rhyn — accused one and two within the case — had been allegedly abused from 4 March 2025 till the early hours of the next day when each males made their false confessions. In addition they contend that neither Appollis nor Van Rhyn had been learn their rights.
Zimri learn the J88 doc within the witness field, which acknowledged: “Upon questioning Mr Van Rhyn, he denies any new accidents or assault for the reason that J88 completion earlier as we speak by Dr Nel.”
The accidents famous by Zimri included a bandage over the left knee and bruising on the fitting knee. She mentioned there have been indicators of therapeutic abrasion on the fitting shoulder and left wrist.
“No new/contemporary accidents famous,” learn Zimri’s J88 doc, submitted after Van Rhyn’s confession.
Choose Nathan Erasmus requested Zimri to make clear what she meant by “therapeutic” to which she responded: “What I imply is that it’s not new, there’s no contemporary blood, it’s already in a stage of therapeutic — so it’s not new.”
“Might you age it [the injury]?” Erasmus requested, to which Zimri responded: “It was no less than 24 hours previous.”
In response to the physician who performed the pre-confession examination, Hendrik Nel, there have been accidents to Van Rhyn’s left and proper knee. Van Rhyn instructed Nel he had had surgical procedure on his left knee a couple of years in the past.
Nel, who testified to the court docket nearly on Thursday, mentioned he requested Van Rhyn how he obtained the harm to his proper knee, to which the accused mentioned he had fallen from a bakkie the day gone by.
“I wrote [in my clinical findings] bilateral type slight swelling anterior facet, clinically no fractures, his left knee had previous surgical scar with a potential hemarthrosis and fluid beneath the knee, delicate tissue harm left knee, no fractures,” mentioned Nel.
“I wrote ‘proper knee delicate tissue harm clinically no fractures’.”
In court docket paperwork, Van Rhys claims {that a} plastic bag was positioned over his head making it troublesome to breathe.
However, in the course of the medical examination, Zimri mentioned she had not seen any marks across the accused’s neck.
“I might have anticipated to see far more extreme accidents — bruising, potential deeper abrasions, fractures probably which isn’t what I noticed after I examined Mr Van Rhyn on that day,” she instructed the court docket.
Zimri performed a post-confession medical examination on Van Rhyn and never Appollis.
Nel and Zimri testified this week in a trial-within-a-trial to find out the admissibility of statements made by Apollis and Van Rhyn, given their allegations of being assaulted and tortured into making them.
On Friday, Erasmus requested to view the footage of Van Rhyn’s confession. The footage performed on an enormous display screen within the Saldanha Bay multipurpose centre getting used as a court docket room, confirmed a relaxed and relaxed trying Van Rhyn smiling and answering questions.
Because the footage continued to play, Erasmus mentioned the video didn’t look like a confession, and requested: “Why was I not instructed this doc is not any reflection of what’s occurring right here?”
Earlier this week, Brigadier Leon Hanana, head of the province’s Critical and Violent Crimes Unit, testified that he had neither witnessed nor sanctioned any bodily abuse in the course of the interrogations of Appollis and Van Rhyn.
Prosecutors allege that Joslin’s mom, Kelly Smith — accused quantity three and companion to Appollis — bought her daughter to a sangoma for R20 000, with Van Rhyn and state witness Lourentia Lombaard receiving smaller quantities as hush cash.
Joslin was final seen on 19 February 2024 in Appollis’s care on the household’s Middelpos shack. The three accused have pleaded not responsible to expenses of kidnapping. Smith has not alleged any mistreatment by the police.