Former carer’s trial postponed again

THE trial of former Lily Kirchman’s staff member Ncediswa Mkenkcele was yesterday postponed to next year after a defence witness failed to arrive in court to testify.

Mkenkcele is on trial for the January and February 2015 assaults of Hope Shepherd, 84, which were caught on video tape inside the oldage home in Berea.

Mkenkcele can be seen on footage played in court this week kicking, slapping and punching Shepherd.

Mkenkcele is seen taking a deodorant can and bashing it against Shepherd ’s head, causing her to bleed.

She then sprays the deodorant into a breathing hole in the neck of throat cancer sufferer Shepherd.

Another part of the footage showed Shepherd tied to her wheelchair, which in turn is tied to the bed, to restrict her from moving for three hours.

Mkenkcele was Shepherd’s primary care giver. The attacks took place during Shepherd’s stay in Lily Kirchman.

The trial was supposed to have concluded yesterday, but defence attorney Chuma Msamo told magistrate Ignatius Kitching that he would be calling three witnesses to the stand.

One of Mkenkcele’s witnesses is a former employee of Lily Kirchman and two who work there.

Msamo told Kitching that the witnesses were not in court yesterday because they were reluctant to testify.

Prosecutor Bonginkosi Mafa stood up and told the court that he would assist to subpoena the witnesses.

The witnesses’ absence angered the magistrate, who berated Msamo for being ill-prepared despite the case taking 19 months to reach this point.

He postponed the matter to January 24 and 25 in 2017 for the last time.

The assaults were captured on a hidden camera placed in Shepherd’s room by her daughter, Bernice Robertson, in 2014.

Robertson had become suspicious of her mother’s constant and unexplained injuries.

After witnessing the brutal assaults on camera, Robertson approached the home’s management before laying a complaint with police. She then removed her mother from the home.

Mkenkcele resigned from her job before disciplinary action could be instituted against her.

Earlier yesterday the state called Adriaan Vorster of Ultech International to the stand.

Vorster was responsible for building the CCTV spy camera fitted into Shepherd’s TV, which then recorded the beating.

Vorster told the court the sensor camera only worked when there was motion and it could record for up to a week.

“Once it reaches capacity it will start deleting as it records again,” Vorster said.

He said the data could not be tampered with as the camera was sealed and built into the TV. — zwangam@dispatch.co.za