‘I saw Rob Packham in wife’s car’

NEIGHBOURHOOD watch patroller Paul Grey identified Rob Packham as the man he had seen in a car that had a description matching that of Gill Packham’s on the day of her murder.

She went missing on February 22 last year. Her charred body was found later that day in the boot of her burnt BMW at the Diep River train station. He is on trial for her murder. Yesterday, Grey told the Western Cape High Court that he had left his house at 2pm in in Constantia, when he came across a stationary vehicle with no registration plates.

“It was a BMW. I had to climb out of my car to have a look. It was dark metallic green. It was stationary with no front or rear licence plates. There were no occupants in the car,” he said.

Grey said he found the absence of registration plates suspicious. He said he walked around the vehicle, then returned to his car, 60m away, to take notes and notify the control room.

He said that as he looked up from making notes, he noticed a white man wearing shorts get in the driver’s seat. Grey said he drove towards the car and approached it from the front.

“The driver banged his hands on the steering wheel and looked anxious. He looked at me, I waved my hand for him to stop, and he sped off,” said Grey.

The 76-year-old witness said he followed the vehicle which drove on to Boundary Road and then to Kendall Road, where he was distracted by traffic and eventually lost sight of it.

Two months later, Grey attended an identity parade where he identified the man he saw that day.

Defence advocate Craig Webster disputed that Packham drove a BMW that day. He said his client had been driving his white Audi Q5 and had been searching for his wife.

Earlier, Tarryn Steed, who works for a company that does Licence Plate Recognition, identified the BMW with no number plates as Gill Packham’s.

She said the car without registration plates had the same special features as Gill’s car, such as the rims, and the placement of a bumper SVG sticker at the rear screen. She said the car was driven by a biggish man, wearing a blue golf T-shirt and wearing eye wear.

The trial continues.