Long wait for compensation
Brothers defy court order to pay after assault
A GONUBIE man who was brutally assaulted by two brothers over a dispute involving their sister is at the end of his tether after not receiving a cent of the almost half-a-million rand the East London High Court ordered they pay him in compensation.
Martin McGregor, 61, said his life had been ruined by the bloody battering he received in his flat at the hands of Roy and Noel Harris in May 2009.
The Harris brothers were found guilty of assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm and sentenced to correctional supervision of 30 months and 36 months. Then, in 2013, the high court instructed they pay McGregor R440 633 plus costs in compensation.
But McGregor said yesterday he had not received any of this money. Speaking from his one-bedroomed flat, he recounted the night the brothers burst into his flat and subjected him to hours of beating and torture after he sent intimate photographs of their sister Carleen Scheepers to her exhusband following their breakup.
He said he had woken up to find the brothers in his home and, after being knocked unconscious, woke up handcuffed. “I had a Samurai sword and they poked it in my neck and stabbed holes through my ear lobes. They gagged me, broke my jaw and strangled me. They left me unconscious for hours and my neighbour found me the next morning in a pool of blood.”
McGregor, a boilermaker, said the attack had left him with a painful jaw, permanent deafness in one ear and post-traumatic stress. He said he had to sell two cars, two motorbikes and a jet-ski to pay medical bills and that he had withdrawn from society and was unable to work.
But yesterday Noel Harris said it was he and his family that had been ruined by McGregor.
“He has inflicted pain on our family. The wounds have gone deep. My sister thought she could trust him, but he distributed photos of her.”
He referred to the assault as a “tiff”, saying his brother had given McGregor “a couple of punches” and that their visit to his flat had lasted no longer than 20 minutes.
“He [McGregor] crippled us. We lost our recycling business to pay for lawyers because it dragged on for years. I am living hand-tomouth. I can’t get a job because I have a criminal record. If I had a job would I pay? No, I don’t think so. He is not entitled to a single penny after the amount of pain he has inflicted on our family.”
But according to attorney Andre Schoombee, people who ignore a court order to pay compensation could be liable for contempt of court proceedings.
“The victim can also turn it into a civil action and issue a warrant of execution to have their property attached.” —