Diesel claim adds fuel to fire in massacre trial

MULTIPLE murder suspect Sylvester Beukes told a Police officer that his brother and co-accused tried to use diesel to set on fire some of the eight people massacred at a Kalkrand area farm three years ago, it has been claimed in the most recent testimony heard in the Kareeboomvloer farm massacre trial.

The trial of Sylvester Beukes (23), his brother, Gavin Beukes (26), Rehoboth area resident Stoney Neidel (31) and Justus Christiaan (‘Shorty’) Erasmus (30) is set to resume before Judge President Petrus Damaseb in the High Court in Windhoek on Wednesday next week. The four charged men are on trial on 15 charges, including eight counts of murder, in connection with the killing of eight people at farm Kareeboomvloer between Rehoboth and Kalkrand on March 4 and 5 2005.The farm belonged to Erasmus’s parents, Justus and Elzabe Erasmus, who were killed at Kareeboomvloer.The State is alleging – and Erasmus is denying – that Erasmus set in motion the events that resulted in the massacre by conspiring with Sylvester Beukes during 2003 to have Erasmus’s parents and his sister, Yolande Erasmus, murdered.The prosecution is also alleging – and Erasmus is similarly denying this – that Erasmus on January 31 2005 supplied Beukes with a .38 Special revolver belonging to his father, as well as ammunition for the gun, which a little over a month later was used to kill several of the people slain at Kareeboomvloer.All four accused men pleaded not guilty at the start of their trial in March last year.By early April last year, though, Sylvester Beukes’s then defence counsel, Winnie Christians, placed it on record that Beukes was admitting that he had killed all eight people at the farm.When queried by Judge President Damaseb last week on whether Beukes was still admitting this, Beukes’s current defence lawyer, Titus Ipumbu, confirmed that these admissions remain unchanged.Beukes however is disputing some key parts of the testimony of Detective Warrant Officer Geoffrey Scott, Ipumbu also indicated when he cross-examined Scott.Scott was the last witness to testify in the trial before it was adjourned to next week.He told the court that when Police officers, at that stage suspecting that the Beukes brothers might have been involved in the killings at the farm, searched the brothers’ home at Rehoboth on March 6 2005, a camera bag was found under a bed in a bedroom in the house.In this bag, camera equipment and other items and also the driver’s licences of Mrs Erasmus and of Gavin Beukes were found, Scott testified.Gavin Beukes is disputing this, his lawyer, Titus Mbaeva, told Scott.Mbaeva said according to his client his driver’s licence had been in a wallet and Police officers had “possibly removed” this from a wardrobe in the bedroom and put it with stolen property that was also found in the room.”That is a lie, sir.These things were in the bag,” was Scott’s reply to that.Scott testified that before the house was searched, the two brothers “denied everything”.A cellphone belonging to Mr Erasmus was also found in another bag in a wardrobe in the same room where the camera bag was found, Scott testified.He said after these items suspected to have been stolen from the farm where the slayings had taken place were found in their house, the brothers were unable to explain the presence of the items in their house.Scott said he formally arrested the brothers on charges of multiple murders and robbery committed at Kareeboomvloer.After a more senior Police officer, the then Inspector Kobie Theron, had taken over command of the investigation, he heard Gavin Beukes talking to Theron and trying to convince him that he was not involved in the events that had taken place at the farm, Scott said.”Gavin was at that stage very relaxed and one could see that by the answers given he was trying to indicate that he was not a murderer, that he killed nobody,” Scott told the court.By then Gavin Beukes was also willing to show the Police officers where the bulk of the items stolen from the farm could be found, Scott said.This led the Police to the farm Areb west of Rehoboth, where a host of stolen items, including two firearms, 22 goats and two sheep, were found, Scott related.Neidel appeared to be shocked after the Police arrived at the farm late at night, but he was co-operative throughout, Scott said.Neidel told the Police that Gavin Beukes had asked him if the brothers could bring things to the farm, as they wanted to start farming there, according to Scott.Two rifles that the brothers had brought to the farm were found hidden some distance from Neidel’s house.Neidel explained that he hid these weapons in some tall grass as there were children at the farm and he did not want them to get hold of the firearms if these were kept at the house, Scott said, adding that this explanation did not go down well with him.Back at the Rehoboth Police Station, Sylvester Beukes told him that stains on clothing belonging to his brother that had been found at their house came from diesel that Gavin Beukes spilled on his clothes when he poured the fuel over the people who had been killed at Kareeboomvloer to set them on fire, Scott also testified.The burnt remains of five of the victims of the farm massacre were found in a torched room in an outbuilding at the farm.At subsequent post-mortem examinations, soot was found in the tracheae of four of these people – an indication that they had still been breathing when the room and themselves were set alight.In cross-examination Mbaeva told Scott that his instructions from Gavin Beukes were that the stains found on his clothes in fact was from oil that Beukes used as part of his job as a sewing machine mechanic.He was only repeating what Sylvester Beukes had told him on that issue, Scott answered to that.Mbaeva further told Scott that his instructions were that Gavin Beukes had nothing whatsoever to do with the murders of the people at the farm.Scott replied: “Sir, Sylvester told me that Gavin was trying to put the people alight so whether he killed the people or who killed the people, I don’t know.”The four charged men are on trial on 15 charges, including eight counts of murder, in connection with the killing of eight people at farm Kareeboomvloer between Rehoboth and Kalkrand on March 4 and 5 2005.The farm belonged to Erasmus’s parents, Justus and Elzabe Erasmus, who were killed at Kareeboomvloer.The State is alleging – and Erasmus is denying – that Erasmus set in motion the events that resulted in the massacre by conspiring with Sylvester Beukes during 2003 to have Erasmus’s parents and his sister, Yolande Erasmus, murdered.The prosecution is also alleging – and Erasmus is similarly denying this – that Erasmus on January 31 2005 supplied Beukes with a .38 Special revolver belonging to his father, as well as ammunition for the gun, which a little over a month later was used to kill several of the people slain at Kareeboomvloer.All four accused men pleaded not guilty at the start of their trial in March last year.By early April last year, though, Sylvester Beukes’s then defence counsel, Winnie Christians, placed it on record that Beukes was admitting that he had killed all eight people at the farm.When queried by Judge President Damaseb last week on whether Beukes was still admitting this, Beukes’s current defence lawyer, Titus Ipumbu, confirmed that these admissions remain unchanged. Beukes however is disputing some key parts of the testimony of Detective Warrant Officer Geoffrey Scott, Ipumbu also indicated when he cross-examined Scott.Scott was the last witness to testify in the trial before it was adjourned to next week.He told the court that when Police officers, at that stage suspecting that the Beukes brothers might have been involved in the killings at the farm, searched the brothers’ home at Rehoboth on March 6 2005, a camera bag was found under a bed in a bedroom in the house.In this bag, camera equipment and other items and also the driver’s licences of Mrs Erasmus and of Gavin Beukes were found, Scott testified.Gavin Beukes is disputing this, his lawyer, Titus Mbaeva, told Scott.Mbaeva said according to his client his driver’s licence had been in a wallet and Police officers had “possibly removed” this from a wardrobe in the bedroom and put it with stolen property that was also found in the room.”That is a lie, sir.These things were in the bag,” was Scott’s reply to that.Scott testified that before the house was searched, the two brothers “denied everything”.A cellphone belonging to Mr Erasmus was also found in another bag in a wardrobe in the same room where the camera bag was found, Scott testified.He said after these items suspected to have been stolen from the farm where the slayings had taken place were found in their house, the brothers were unable to explain the presence of the items in their house.Scott said he formally arrested the brothers on charges of multiple murders and robbery committed at Kareeboomvloer.After a more senior Police officer, the then Inspector Kobie Theron, had taken over command of the investigation, he heard Gavin Beukes talking to Theron and trying to convince him that he was not involved in the events that had taken place at the farm, Scott said.”Gavin was at that stage very relaxed and one could see that by the answers given he was trying to indicate that he was not a murderer, that he killed nobody,” Scott told the court.By then Gavin Beukes was also willing to show the Police officers where the bulk of the items stolen from the farm could be found, Scott said.This led the Police to the farm Areb west of Rehoboth, where a host of stolen items, including two firearms, 22 goats and two sheep, were found, Scott related.Neidel appeared to be shocked after the Police arrived at the farm late at night, but he was co-operative throughout, Scott said.Neidel told the Police that Gavin Beukes had asked him if the brothers could bring things to the farm, as they wanted to start farming there, according to Scott.Two rifles that the brothers had brought to the farm were found hidden some distance from Neidel’s house.Neidel explained that he hid these weapons in some tall grass as there were children at the farm and he did not want them to get hold of the firearms if these were kept at the house, Scott said, adding that this explanation did not go down well with him.Back at the Rehoboth Police Station, Sylvester Beukes told him that stains on clothing belonging to his brother that had been found at their house came from diesel that Gavin Beukes spilled on his clothes when he poured the fuel over the people who had been killed at Kareeboomvloer to set them on fire, Scott also testified.The burnt remains of five of the victims of the farm massacre were found in a torched room in an outbuilding at the farm.At subsequent post-mortem examinations, soot was found in the tracheae of four of these people – an indication that they had still been breathing when the room and themselves were set alight.In cross-examination Mbaeva told Scott that his instructions from Gavin Beukes were that the stains found on his clothes in fact was from oil that Beukes used as part of his job as a sewing machine mechanic.He was only repeating what Sylvester Beukes had told him on that issue, Scott answered to that.Mbaeva further told Scott that his instructions were that Gavin Beukes had nothing whatsoever to do with the murders of the people at the farm.Scott replied: “Sir, Sylvester told me that Gavin was trying to put the people alight so whether he killed the people or who killed the people, I don’t know.”