Cleric tells of ‘demons’

A CLERGYMAN has testified in the Western Cape High Court that Aljar Swartz was possessed by demons when he beheaded a Ravensmead teenager in October 2013.

Yesterday the Rev Cecil Begbie, a minister of the Methodist Church for 50 years, was called to testify in mitigation of sentence.

Begbie told the court he had visited Swartz in Pollsmoor prison five times since he had been jailed for the murder of 15-year-old Lee Adams.

Swartz was found guilty last month of the gruesome beheading at an abandoned school in Cape Town in October 2013.

In February Swartz admitted to strangling the Ravensmead teenager on October 17, 2013. He then stabbed him numerous times, and finally decapitated him. A security guard found the body at a school. The head was later found in a shallow grave in the accused’s garden.

It is alleged that Swartz planned to sell the head of his victim to a sangoma for R5 000.

He claimed he was a Satanist at the time, but State prosecutor Carine Teunissen said there had been no evidence of a satanic ritual.

But Begbie told the court yesterday that Swartz had been possessed by demons, and that was why he felt it necessary to perform an exorcism at Pollsmoor prison.

The prison, however, denied permission for this.

When defence lawyer Sheriff Mohamed asked him to testify about other exorcisms he had performed, Judge Steyn interjected: “If you want to lead evidence on magic or witchcraft I’m not going to allow that. Have you seen how many times in court the accused says, ‘The devil made me do it,’ and no court has ever accepted that in mitigation.”

Begbie told the court he had sent out the word to church groups to do a special prayer for Swartz. On Good Friday they all stretched out their arms towards the prison and prayed. He said they prayed for all inmates, not just for Swartz.

When Begbie visited Swartz last Friday, he said, he could see a radical change. Swartz told him that about three weeks ago, when the collective prayer was held, he felt he was standing under a waterfall with pure, clean water flowing through his body. Swartz had felt free of demons. Begbie said Swartz’s behaviour had been that of someone possessed, and not a cold-blooded murderer.

Judge Steyn responded: “This is not a case about Satanism, it’s about a young man who took the life of another young man.” – ANA