Kinnear’s phone was pinged 118 times in one day, court hears

ANTI-Gang Unit detective Charl Kinnear was pinged more that 100 times in a single day in the weeks leading up to his assassination, the Western Cape High Court has heard.

Meanwhile, top criminal lawyer William Booth was pinged over 300 times in the months leading up to the botched hit at his Higgovale home.

After weeks of delays in introducing the ping evidence by the elite Hawks team that investigated alleged underworld kingpin Nafiz Modack, officers finally took the stand yesterday to show staggering statistics of how Kinnear, Booth and others were stalked.

In earlier testimonies, a former gangster and self-professed hitman told the court how he was sent to kill Booth at various locations allegedly provided to him by Modack’s coaccused, Ziyaad Poole.

The witness, who was only identified as Mr A, told the court he had tried on many occasions, but failed and even fell asleep on the job.

According to the State’s case, Booth’s phone was allegedly pinged by Modack’s co-accused, Zane Kilian.

Following expert testimonies by former cop Bradley Goldblatt, the Hawks team proceeded to show the digital data involving how many times alleged targets were pinged.

Goldblatt openly told the court that he knew the use of the LAD system to ping phones was illegal, but highlighted that he warned the Hawks of the impending danger on Kinnear’s life.

In his testimony yesterday, Captain Edward Du Plessis told the court that Booth was pinged 344 times, of which 235 pings were successful.

He explained the pings started on March 6, 2020, and just one ping and three days later, Booth had been pinged up to 14 times in one day.

Du Plessis shocked the court when he revealed that Booth was pinged as early as 2am in the morning and into the late hours to ascertain his location.

Questioned by State advocate, Greg Wolmarans, Du Plessis said that on March 14, 2020, Booth was pinged 49 times in just one day.

After the botched hit on April 9, 2020, the pings were decreased to less than one a day.

According to a snapshot of the pings done on Kinnear’s phone, it was found that in the month leading up to his murder, he was pinged up to 118 times in just one day.

In the days that followed, Kinnear was pinged no fewer than 40 times a day and on the day he was murdered outside his Bishop Lavis home on September 18, 2020, he was pinged 35 times.

Wolmarans said after Kinnear was shot, his number was never pinged again.

The trial continues.