Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
NPA may admit new evidence in Bond death case
THE National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) is considering admitting a private investigator’s new evidence into its case against an alleged drunk driver who killed Nadia Bond, 8, of Scottsville in Kraaifontein.
This was confirmed by NPA spokesperson Erica Ntabazalila.
The incident took place on the evening of September 18, 2015, on the corner of 9th Avenue and Dennis Street.
But the NPA’s plans have irritated the child’s father, John Bond, who says he spent up to R50 000 on an attorney and a private investigator’s fee.
“If they’re considering or using the evidence, they have not informed me yet. To me this is not about money more than it is about principle and the truth.
“It should not be up to the parents to fight the case. The onus should be on the State. The case has dragged on for very long.”
The accused is Bradley Grysman, who after the accident took Nadia to the Kraaifontein Day Hospital.
Bond is angry about this too, saying the police should prosecute Grysman for removing the body from the scene when he took her to hospital.
Bond is also concerned about how long it took for Grysman to get the child to hospital. He said he had tested the distance from the accident scene to the hospital, numerous times.
The incident happened at 17.30pm, but Grysman allegedly only made it to the hospital at 17.50pm. There are four different routes from the scene of the accident to the hospital, says Bond, and the longest is six minutes in busy traffic.
The NPA responded to Bond’s claims this week that the NPA had been ignoring the private investigator’s evidence and using a police report which the father claims “has no record of witnesses accounts”.
Ntabazalila said it is not true that the evidence of the private investigator was being disregarded. “We are seriously considering it,” he said. He said the matter has been on the roll for quite some time, “but not unduly so”.
“There are times where the defence asked for postponements and where it had to be postponed because Mr Bond wanted to make representations to the director of public prosecution in the province or the national director of pub- lic prosecutions.”
Ntabazalila said the police investigation was closed a while ago and the matter was back on the court roll for trial on September 26, 27 and 28.
Johan Joubert, a private traffic accident reconstruction expert, said the NPA had not contacted him. He maintained the police had “the scene all wrong”.
“The length of the skid marks is wrong, and based on that, the police’s speed calculations are wrong.”