Saunders’s grim confession

RAPE and murder accused Mortimer Saunders allegedly told the investigating officer, before making a formal confession, he performed a sexual act on three-year-old Courtney Pieters’s corpse at the site her body was dumped.

Saunders led the police on a wild goose chase when he gave them false information, State witness and investigating officer Sean Taylor said.

Yesterday, the State called Taylor as its final witness to the stand at the Western Cape High Court.

Taylor said the police had followed up all leads, including “two ransom demands which ended up being bogus stories”.

According to Taylor, Saunders and other neighbours gave information to the police about a man who lived around the corner from the Pluto Street home from which Courtney went missing, but this suspect was eventually “eliminated from the investigation”.

Taylor said that on the day Courtney’s body was found, in Bofors Circle, Saunders, who had been a part of the nine-day search, was absent.

Taylor said he viewed CCTV footage at Elsiesriver police station, and a neighbour of the Pieters family was the first one to identify Saunders on the footage “as she recognised his walk”.

Courtney’s mother Juanita was given the opportunity to view the footage, but initially denied knowing the suspect.

“When the sniffer dog was at the Pluto Street home (the next day), Juanita came to me and said she had lied and did in fact know the person on the footage.

“I asked her why she had lied, and she said she could not believe it was him.”

Taylor, stationed at the Bishop Lavis police station as a commander in the Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences unit, testified that after Saunders’s arrest, he wanted to “get his head clear of what he did” and said he had “killed Courtney, dumped her body, and after dumping her penetrated her vagina with his fingers”.

“At this point I stopped the interview as I wanted a formal confession from the accused. Saunders said he did not want any legal representation present during his confession, and he agreed to point out where he had dumped Courtney,” Taylor said.

The trial will continue on Monday when the defence will call their privately appointed forensic pathologist to the witness stand.