Murder trial witness goes back on police statement

A WITNESS testifying in the Port Elizabeth High Court trial of six men accused of murdering an elderly Theescombe couple distanced himself yesterday from a police statement he had made at the time of the murders which implicated the accused.

Despite the police statement being signed by Vusumzi Yolo in 2009, he said yesterday that the information was incorrect.

Last week, Judge Nambitha Dambuza gave Yolo, 23, of Kuyga in Greenbushes, the opportunity to obtain legal representation due to the inconsistencies between his statement and his evidence-in-chief.

Yolo is testifying in the trial of Vernol Fillis, 39, Mbulelo Breakfast, 31, Vuyo Plaatjies, 33, Makwenkwe Lunga Pamle, 24, Lukhanyo Bolo, 24, and Zonwabo Kilani, 25, who are charged with housebreaking with intent to rob, robbery, kidnapping, rape and the murders of George Venter, 78, and his wife Jacoba, 67, on May 31 2009. - Lee-Anne Butler