Van der Vyver PI charges cops

A private investigator has laid charges of defeating the ends of justice and of perjury against key investigators who probed the murder of Stellenbosch student Inge Lotz.

Last week Lotz's boyfriend, Fred van der Vyver, was acquitted on murder charges after a marathon trial.

Private investigator Niel van Heerden was appointed by Lotz's family to investigate her murder soon after she was found dead in her Stellenbosch flat on March 16, 2005.

On Thursday Van Heerden went to the Mossel Bay police station and laid a charge of defeating the ends of justice against two leading members of the investigations team.

He accused them of withholding pertinent information from the court. He also laid a charge of perjury against another person whom he alleges lied while giving evidence.

The identities of the three are known to the Cape Argus, but they may not be identified for legal reasons.

Today Director Novela Potelwa, spokesperson for provincial police commissioner Mzwandile Petros, confirmed that charges had been laid and that they would be investigated.

"We are compelled to investigate all charges and will do so," she said.

Van Heerden told the Cape Argus he had laid the charges because he believed the three had deliberately misled the Cape High Court by withholding crucial evidence in the trial.

Their actions could have led to a life sentence for an innocent man, he said.

In the brutal attack in Lotz's flat, her head was bludgeoned with a blunt instrument and she was stabbed a number of times.

Van der Vyver was found not guilty of her murder on November 29, after Judge Deon van Zyl, sitting with two assessors, found he had a watertight alibi and the State was unable to prove his guilt beyond reasonable doubt.

It took the help of top experts for Van der Vyver's defence to counter the State's case and during his judgment Judge Van Zyl slammed the police forensics work and handling of the case.

The Van der Vyver family indicated at the end of the case that they were considering suing the SAPS for wrongful arrest and damages, as the trial had cost them up to R9 million.

The Van der Vyvers and the Lotz family declined comment about Van Heerden's charges today.

Van Heerden, a director of private investigations firm George Fivaz and Associates, was removed from the case by the Lotzes before it came to court, at the behest of police investigators.

In a statement handed to police yesterday, Van Heerden referred to evidence he said he had gathered at the crime scene that had never been taken into account.

He also referred to a statement he had made to police in 2005 in response to police accusations of obstruction of justice, as well as his report for Lotz's father, Professor Jan Lotz, copied to Assistant Commissioner Ganief Daniels, in which he said he had pointed to evidence that he had uncovered at the crime after the police had completed their work there.

Allegations he charges were not followed up by police include:

Evidence that might have indicated Lotz was not alone in her flat on the afternoon of her death.

An allegation that pol-ice were clearly wrong when they assumed that a blood mark on the floor of a guest bathroom in the flat was a footprint.

Photographs he had taken at the murder scene did not correspond with police photographs of the same subjects.

There were other potential suspects that should have been finger-printed and investigated.

Van Heerden alleged that he had offered a detective involved with the police investigation a copy of his report for Professor Lotz. This offer had never been taken up.

In his report to Lotz, Van Heerden detailed interviews he had had with other potential suspects and stated why they could be considered suspects. One of these men was neither willing to submit to a lie-detector test, nor to be fingerprinted without consulting a lawyer. All the others had agreed to these requests.

This report had been ignored by police as they pursued a case against Van der Vyver, Van Heerden said.

"I could never have lived with my conscience if I had known that an innocent man had been given a life sentence," he said.

In his statement to police yesterday, he said: "In my opinion, information was illegally and purposefully kept from the High Court.

Their (the investigators he charged) conduct, actions and omissions, as they withheld evidence from the High Court, could have led to an innocent person being sentenced to life in prison.

"They also cost the taxpayer millions of rands in damages. I want the case to be investigated by the Independent Complaints Directorate.

"I also expect that disciplinary steps (will) be taken against (the two investigators) as well as (two other police investigators, also known to the Cape Argus)."

• This article was originally published on page 1 of The Cape Argus on December 06, 2007