Werner Menges
17 April 2008
Windhoek — The death of a 15-year-old boy who was found tied up in a pool of water in the Fish River near Mariental in May 2006 was the result of an innocent game gone terribly wrong, the young man accused of murdering the boy testified in the High Court in Windhoek yesterday.
"I did not do it intentionally; it was just a game.
It was accidental," Ashley van Wyk told Acting Judge Hosea Angula as he recounted the events that led to the death of the 15-year-old Kain Pienaar close to Mariental on May 15 2006. Van Wyk (24) went on trial before Acting Judge Angula on Monday on charges of murder, rape and robbery with aggravating circumstances.
He pleaded not guilty to all three counts. Acting Judge Angula acquitted Van Wyk on the rape charge after State advocate Andrew Muvirimi had closed the State's case yesterday. Except for testimony from medical doctor Elizabeth Shangula, who told the court that after doing a post-mortem examination of Pienaar's body she suspected that the boy may have been penetrated anally, there was no conclusive evidence that the boy had been raped, and no evidence that Van Wyk had been responsible for this.
Pienaar had been visiting his aunt at Mariental over the weekend before he died, one of the Police officers who investigated his death, Detective Sergeant Gottfried Maritshane, testified yesterday. He said the Police established during their investigation that Pienaar had travelled to Mariental after attending his late father's funeral at Maltahoehe. Pienaar's mother had passed away before his father also died, the Police established. After spending the weekend with his aunt at Mariental, Pienaar was supposed to get a ride back to Maltahoehe, and had to wait for this ride at a well-known hitch-hiking spot at the town, Maritshane said.
According to Van Wyk, he met Pienaar at this hitch-hiking spot on the morning of May 15 2006. Van Wyk, who in his testimony constantly referred to Pienaar as "die mannetjie" ("the little fellow"), said he asked the boy what his name was, and the boy told him he was "Kain". After asking the boy where he was hitching to, and why no adult was hitching with him, the boy started walking with him, Van Wyk said.
He eventually walked with the boy to a hiking spot at a bridge over the Fish River on the road going from Mariental to Maltahoehe, Van Wyk said. After waiting with the boy for a lift for about an hour, Pienaar suggested that they should go down into the river for a swim, Van Wyk testified.
He said they walked into the riverbed, looking for a place to swim, which they found about 300 to 400 metres from the bridge. There, in a pool of water that was about knee deep, Pienaar picked up a piece of blue rope, Van Wyk said. He and Pienaar started playing around, and used this rope to tie each other's arms, with the object of the game being that the tied-up person had to chase the other one and catch him, after which the free one would have his hands tied and their roles would be reversed, Van Wyk said.
They were also throwing each other with clay, he said. After he had tied Pienaar's arms below his elbows, with Pienaar running in the direction of the bridge where they had come from, he threw a piece of clay at Pienaar, he said. Van Wyk said he was aiming at Pienaar's legs, but the piece of clay - which was dried out and about fist-sized - struck Pienaar against the head.
"It was not too heavy hard, but also not too soft," Van Wyk said about the piece of clay. When this hit the boy against the head, Pienaar turned around and fell into the pool of water, Van Wyk said.
"I just thought, the little fellow is dead that time," Van Wyk said in his evidence in chief. He said he turned, grabbed a plastic carry bag with clothes and a pair of shoes that Pienaar had been carrying with him, and ran away, leaving the tied-up Pienaar lying motionless in the pool of water. Under cross-examination Van Wyk told he court that he was not sure whether Pienaar was dead or unconscious after he had fallen into the water. It was because he was shocked and got frightened when Pienaar was felled by the piece of clay he had thrown at him that he turned and ran away without making any effort to get the boy out of the water, he said.
He took the bag because two T-shirts and sandals that he had been wearing were also in the bag at that stage, Van Wyk said. As he ran away, he took out his clothes, put on the shoes of Pienaar that had been in the bag, and threw the rest of the bag away, Van Wyk said. At Mariental, someone asked him if he wanted to sell the shoes, so he sold them for N$30, Van Wyk said.
He used the money to buy some dagga and a piece of a Mandrax tablet, which he then smoked, he said. He said he remained in a state of shock throughout the week that was to follow.The first time he had a good night's sleep again was only after he had been arrested on May 19 2006 and locked up in the Police cells at Mariental, he said.
Dr Shangula, who found a circular depressed skull fracture on the right side of Pienaar's head, concluded that he had died from a head injury.
No evidence that he had drowned could be found. Defence counsel Louis Karsten is representing Van Wyk.
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