Award-winning Bay cop acquitted of kidnapping and assault charges
With his reputation as one of Gqeberha’s most decorated police officers having been on the line, Warrant Officer Severiano Blundin breathed a sigh of relief yesterday when he was acquitted of kidnapping, torture and assault due to a lack of evidence.
It also emerged that two of the three men who had accused Blundin of kidnapping and torturing them had since been rearrested on charges including theft, murder and the attempted murder of a police officer.
With a smile on his face, the award-winning Gqeberha Flying Squad member walked out of the Gqeberha magistrate’s court after his application in terms of Section 174 of the Criminal Procedure Act was upheld by the magistrate.
Blundin’s defence advocate, Jason Thysse, had brought the application for his acquittal at the close of the state’s case, arguing that the case put forward by the prosecution was so weak there was no reasonable prospect of a conviction.
“For the last two years this thing has been hanging over me and it was terrible,” Blundin said after the court had adjourned.
“All I can do now is thank
God for giving me the strength to push through, and thank my family and lawyer for their continued support.”
Blundin was arrested in March 2022, following a lengthy investigation by the Independent Police Investigative Directorate.
He was charged with kidnapping, assault and torture after he, and another unknown police official, were accused of holding Alvado Francis, Sherwin Eckhardt and Keanu Arends against their will on March 15 2019.
They were further accused of tying the complainants up with cable ties before transporting them to a remote location.
The men claimed the officers had placed plastic bags over their heads and then suffocated and assaulted them.
However, the testimonies of Francis and Eckhardt were found to be riddled with contradictions as they evaded questions put to them under cross-examination by Thysse.
Arends never testified in court as he is believed to be in a rehabilitation centre in Gauteng.
Thysse had brought the Section 174 application earlier this year, and yesterday, magistrate Wesley Reid agreed with the submissions by the defence, effectively finding Blundin not guilty on all charges.
“The evidence before court is of such poor quality that it can be said there is no evidence for a reasonable court to even consider,” Reid said in handing down his judgment.
He said further that Francis and Eckhardt’s versions of events had changed several times during their testimony and under cross-examination.
Reid found them to be unreliable witnesses, adding that the testimony of further state witnesses had also failed to add anything of value to the state’s case.
Earlier yesterday, Reid also dismissed an application by state prosecutor Phila Ndamse for the matter to be postponed to allow the prosecution more time to make further submissions in rebuttal to the Section 174 application.
Reid labelled it “a frivolous attempt” to delay a fair trial and said the postponement would not be in the interest of justice.
Speaking after his acquittal, Blundin said he was disappointed by the public’s reaction to the allegations against him.
Among other issues, he made reference to a petition launched against him and his team to prohibit them from performing their duties in the city’s northern areas, despite their successes against known gang affiliates and the number of firearms they had managed to recover.
“While my case was receiving so much attention, no-one was looking at the cases against the men who brought these charges against me.
“They [allegedly] have known criminal ties, some of them to gangs in the northern areas, but I faced endless criticism.”
Francis has since been arrested in connection with the January 2023 attempted murder of a police officer in Gelvandale and is also the prime suspect in a murder investigation in Bethelsdorp dating back to August 2022.
He also has a previous conviction of hijacking from January 2017, for which he received a five-year prison sentence, suspended for four years.
Arends, meanwhile, is accused of stealing a car in Qonce in 2022.
Despite continuing with his police duties during the course of the trial, Blundin said he had found the experience to be very demotivating.
“It seems gangsters have more influence in their communities and more rights than the police.
“I’ve been through a lot, including threats on my life and threats on my family.
“But I had to keep my head up and protect myself, my family and my colleagues.
“I had to push through.”