Wardle now wants to charge laptop in holding cell
FRAUD accused legal commentator Brenda Wardle made a brief appearance in court yesterday where she demanded her laptop be plugged in inside the holding cells to allow her to prepare her own defence.
This is not the first time Wardle, 58, has made odd requests in the Port Elizabeth Commercial Crimes Court.
She has previously requested three-ply toilet paper to be supplied to her by the state while she remains in custody.
Yesterday, she told magistrate Johannes Claassen that although she was allowed to access her laptop in the holding cells when she waits to be taken back to the North End Prison she was unable to use it as the battery had died.
“I only have access to it when at court,” Wardle said.
Claassen said she could charge her laptop in the courtroom but he would not allow her to take the cord into the holding cells.
“You can’t have a cable in the cell, its too dangerous,” he said.
Wardle then requested that the court’s police officer remain with her at the holding cells, which Claassen rejected.
Wardle became a household name for her legal commentary during the Oscar Pistorius murder trial.
Now she stands accused of fraud after it was found that she was not a legal practising attorney as defined by the Attorneys Act when she told an Eastern Cape family she could get their relative, serving a 12 year sentence for murder, paroled early.
Wardle allegedly swindled the family out of more than R500 000 between April 2009 and August 2013.
She has been representing herself in the case against her since her arrest in East London in June last year.
Wardle will appear in the Port Elizabeth High Court on Thursday for her appeal for bail based on new facts after which she will return to the Commercial Crimes Court on Friday for her matter to be heard further.