No date yet for continuation of Pio Teek trial

FORMER Judge Pio Teek faces a further two-week wait before he can expect to hear when his High Court trial on child abduction and molestation charges will continue.

Teek (59), a former High Court Judge President and, at the time of his sudden arrest on January 31 last year, a Judge of Appeal of Namibia’s Supreme Court, made another brief appearance in the High Court in Windhoek yesterday, only to hear that a date has not yet been set for the continuation of his trial. Deputy Prosecutor General Heidi Jacobs asked Judge Elton Hoff to postpone Teek’s case for another two weeks, until May 29, to give the prosecution and the defence more time to obtain further trial dates.The availability of South African Judge Ronnie Bosielo, who is presiding over Teek’s trial, still has to be confirmed before the trial dates can be fixed.Teek remains free on bail on the meantime.At the start of his trial on April 24, Teek pleaded not guilty on all eight charges that he is facing.He is accused of having abducted or kidnapped two children, aged ten and nine, by picking them up with his vehicle in Katutura and taking them to his home in the Brakwater area north of Windhoek on the evening of January 28 last year.In the indictment, the State charges that on the way to his home and also at his house Teek committed what amounted to rape by sexually fondling the older girl.He also sexually molested the younger girl at his house, it is further alleged.Teek admitted that he had picked up the children, and explained that this was because he wanted to give them food at his house since they had complained to him that they were hungry.He denied having made any sort of sexual advances to the two girls.Most of the attacking that has taken place over the five days that the trial was in process from April 24 came not from the State, but from the defence team representing Teek.In the process, defence counsel Richard Metcalfe has been questioning the integrity and thoroughness of the Police’s investigation of the alleged complaints that the two girls laid against Teek.He has also had the two children’s allegations against Teek in his sights, and scored early points for the defence when he got the mother of the younger girl to reveal to the court that her child had told her that nothing untoward had actually happened at Teek’s house.The mother of the girl who is claimed to have made the more serious allegations of a sexual molestation against Teek was the second last of the 11 witnesses to have testified so far in the trial.Under cross-examination from Metcalfe, she conceded that her child’s version of what had happened on the evening in question was not consistent every time the girl was asked to retell it.The two complainants still have to testify once the trial eventually resumes.Deputy Prosecutor General Heidi Jacobs asked Judge Elton Hoff to postpone Teek’s case for another two weeks, until May 29, to give the prosecution and the defence more time to obtain further trial dates.The availability of South African Judge Ronnie Bosielo, who is presiding over Teek’s trial, still has to be confirmed before the trial dates can be fixed.Teek remains free on bail on the meantime.At the start of his trial on April 24, Teek pleaded not guilty on all eight charges that he is facing.He is accused of having abducted or kidnapped two children, aged ten and nine, by picking them up with his vehicle in Katutura and taking them to his home in the Brakwater area north of Windhoek on the evening of January 28 last year.In the indictment, the State charges that on the way to his home and also at his house Teek committed what amounted to rape by sexually fondling the older girl.He also sexually molested the younger girl at his house, it is further alleged.Teek admitted that he had picked up the children, and explained that this was because he wanted to give them food at his house since they had complained to him that they were hungry.He denied having made any sort of sexual advances to the two girls.Most of the attacking that has taken place over the five days that the trial was in process from April 24 came not from the State, but from the defence team representing Teek.In the process, defence counsel Richard Metcalfe has been questioning the integrity and thoroughness of the Police’s investigation of the alleged complaints that the two girls laid against Teek.He has also had the two children’s allegations against Teek in his sights, and scored early points for the defence when he got the mother of the younger girl to reveal to the court that her child had told her that nothing untoward had actually happened at Teek’s house.The mother of the girl who is claimed to have made the more serious allegations of a sexual molestation against Teek was the second last of the 11 witnesses to have testified so far in the trial.Under cross-examination from Metcalfe, she conceded that her child’s version of what had happened on the evening in question was not consistent every time the girl was asked to retell it.The two complainants still have to testify once the trial eventually resumes.