Two State witnesses in the murder of their mother and father when they were 13 and 15 years old will testify in-camera at the Western Cape High Court, despite now being adults.
Testifying in the trial against alleged Terrible Josters gang leader, Elton Lenting and 19 others, the witnesses will also not be named to protect their identities.
Lenting and his co-accused face 145 criminal charges, including the murder of the witnesses’ parents.
They are further charged with attempted murder, illegal possession of firearms, drug possession, drug trafficking, kidnapping, assault, arson and theft committed between March 2002 and January 2017.
In the witnesses’ application to have the matter heard in-camera, the judgment read: “In the context of Section 154(3) of the Child Protection Act (CPA), the court held that a child who has experienced trauma, be it as a victim, a witness, or an accused, does not forfeit the protection afforded by that subsection upon reaching the age of 18 and should not, as a result of turning 18, have their story and identity exposed without their consent or necessary judicial oversight.”
The State relied on evidence given by a clinical psychologist and also submitted that a witness’ mental age was below 18.
In her evidence, the clinical psychologist Kirsten Clark testified that one of the witnesses suffered from headaches and flashbacks of the shooting of his father and had previously been admitted to hospital for a psychotic break in 2019.
The other, who witnessed the killing of his mother, reported symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and had “displayed symptoms of depression such that, at some stage, he wanted to shoot himself”.
Judge James Lekhuleni said: “According to (the clinical psychologist), if this witness were to testify in open court and start recounting the events of that particular incident, there is a great possibility that he would experience flashbacks on the stand, which would obviously make his narrative incoherent based on the fact that he has dissociated where he is.
“(Kirsten Clark) further reported that the witness feared for his life, and to place him in such a situation would increase his distress.
“He could decompensate on the witness stand.
“Her clinical judgement is that the witness suffers from psychotic disorder after witnessing the incident.
It is possible that if the witness testifies in open court, this would provoke a psychotic break and negatively affect the mental health of the said witness in the long term,’’ the judgement read.
The State further argued that the witnesses would be re-victimised and re-traumatised by testifying in open court in the presence of the accused.
Cape Times