Johannesburg — SUSPENDED Ekurhuleni metropolitan police department chief Robert McBride was so drunk during a Christmas party in 2006 that he was unsteady on his feet, his speech was slurred and he crashed his official vehicle moments after he had left the function, the Pretoria Regional Court heard yesterday.

The court also heard how officials from the department acted to cover up the crash and assisted McBride to find a doctor who could report that the crash was a result of a medical condition.

McBride has pleaded not guilty to counts of driving under the influence of liquor, obstructing the course of justice and fraud.

McBride's advocate Guido Penzhorn SC told the court that McBride's constitutional right to a fair trial had been compromised by the state which had intimidated and harassed witnesses. The state also compromised his right to a fair trial by arresting and charging Dr Joseph Moratioa and Hendrik Degenaar and setting separate trial dates for the two.

Moratioa is accused of fraud and defeating the ends of justice. It is alleged that he misled the police and the state that he had examined McBride on December 21 2006 and claimed that he was sober and suffering from hypoglycaemia. Degenaar, a metropolitan police officer, is accused of assaulting witnesses at the scene of the accident.

Stanley Sagathevan, the state's first witness, testified how McBride drank from two bottles of spirits at a Christmas party at Hartbeespoort Dam on the same day of the accident .

Sagathevan and two officers who were first at the scene of the traffic incident had been suspended from the department since May last year.

Sagathevan said McBride shared a bottle of whisky with some of his colleagues, and when it was finished, a bottle of bourbon whiskey was bought from a nearby shop. Sagavethan said McBride kept half the bottle of bourbon to himself.

Sagathevan said he offered to drive McBride home but he refused. "He was not sober enough to drive."

Sagathevan said he heard from another official that McBride had crashed his vehicle, minutes after Sagathevan had left the Christmas function.

When Sagathevan arrived at the accident scene, McBride got into his vehicle and Sagathevan called a medical practitioner who was also his cousin.

Sagathevan and McBride drove to Boksburg, where McBride was examined and treated.

Sagathevan said he and fellow officers Patrick Johnston and Itumeleg Koko, who were the first officers on the scene, were instructed by McBride to find a doctor who would claim that McBride was sober and that he actually suffered from hypoglycaemia. Hypoglycaemia is the result of inadequate supply of glucose and some of the effects include the impairment of function.

Sagathevan said he called his cousin, a doctor in Boksburg, who refused.

McBride, Sagathevan, Johnston and Koko also visited various doctors in the Boksburg area, who all refused. Sagathevan said the four also approached Dr Gomolemo Mokae in Garankuwa, who said he had been de-registered from the roll and promised to arrange another practitioner to write the report.

In January last year, the four went to Garankuwa where Mokae had arranged a practitioner, Dr Moratioa, to write a note that McBride was not drunk at the time of the accident but that he had suffered an attack. Sagathevan said Mokae was given about R350 and McBride promised Mokae that he would return soon to slaughter a sheep at Mokae's home.

The case continues.