Kidnapped Amy’Leigh cried all night

It was not a happy moment for Amy’Leigh de Jager, six, when she started her fourth and final term of the 2019 academic year this week, the Vanderbijlpark Magistrate’s Court heard yesterday.

The state told Magistrate Hussain Kotha that De Jager feared returning to school and that she cried all night on Monday.

In the dock, applying for bail, were suspended Laerskool Kollegepark Grade RR teacher Tharina Human and her co-accused, Laetitia Nel and Pieter Jacobus van Zyl.

The state is opposing their bail application. The three are accused of kidnapping De Jager outside the same school on September 2.

Prosecutor Luanda Ngcobo submitted that the accused were a danger to themselves, society and that it was not in the interests of justice to release them.

Ngcobo said De Jager’s parents, Wynand and Angeline, told her that Amy’Leigh was worried and would often ask about the accused each time they appear in court.

Therefore, their release would traumatise her as she already lives in fear, she submitted.

Human, who was the alleged mastermind of the kidnapping, reportedly uses “narcotics” and owes money to drug lords.

Ngcobo said the “drug lords” were probably angry that the public knows about the alleged debt and would probably want to punish Human.

“Should they go out there, they will definitely endanger the people out there. They should also be kept in custody for their safety,” Ngcobo submitted.

But defence lawyers argued that the evidence of the investigating officer, Constable Clayton Motloung, was baseless.

When testifying on September 19, Motloung told the court that the three accused initially planned to kidnap Human so that her family could pay a ransom which she would then use to pay the drug lords.

However, the plan was abandoned and they opted to snatch De Jager instead, the court heard.

He said a witness who was privy to the plan would testify during the trial.

But Human’s lawyer, David Mey, described Motloung’s evidence as “speculation”.

Mey and Nel’s lawyer, Stoffel Venter, as well as Van Zyl’s lawyer, Lungelo Chirwa, argued that the merits of the case had nothing to do with the bail application and were for the trial court to decide.

Mey added that, while the state submitted that the little girl did not want to attend school, it did not call her mother to testify so that the defence could test the evidence during cross-examination.

Judgment in the bail application was postponed to October 11.

The fourth accused, Bofokeng Molemohi, who was arrested on September 23, is expected to appear in court today for his bail application. – News24 Wire