Tumult as jailed robber vaults from dock, escapes

A FATHER of two small children, convicted of armed robbery, jumped the prisoner’s dock of a court in Cape Town yesterday and escaped, just seconds after he had been sentenced to four years in prison.

The escape happened so fast that he was gone in a flash, before anyone realised what had happened.

By late yesterday he was still on the run.

Aldrin (Ollie) Witbooi, 37, appeared in the Parow Regional Court before magis- trate Constance Nziweni.

The magistrate had sentenced him to six years, and as she suspended two of the six years – effectively jailing him for four years – there was a commotion as he suddenly jumped backwards out of the dock.

In a flash, he was out of the door, and gone, before anyone could stop him.

The case was a sequel to an incident one night in October, 2015, when Witbooi, accompanied by his cousin Annette Andrews, 28, paid a late-night visit to the Goodwood home of Dutch immigrant Aarnold de Myunk.

De Myunk had invited Andrews to his home that night for supper, and she had arrived with Witbooi. As De Myunk opened the gate for the two, a second, unknown man, armed with a gun, suddenly appeared from nowhere and pushed his way past them.

This second, unnamed man proceeded to ransack the house and help himself to De Myunk’s expensive music recording equipment.

The man with the gun got away, leaving Witbooi and his cousin to face the music.

As it turned out, Andrews was acquitted, leaving Witbooi to take the rap.

Minutes prior to the escape, the court had rejected the defence’s request for a suspended sentence.