Bullet in groin key to murder trial - State

The State says a bullet lodged in Yazeed Hendricks could link him to the murder of four Pakistani men in Mitchells Plain.

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Cape Town - It remains uncertain whether “a bullet embedded in the groin” of one of three men accused of multiple murders in Mitchells Plain could link him to the crime.

On Thursday the Western Cape High Court heard that doctors had not removed a bullet lodged in murder accused Yazeed Hendricks, which the State says could link him to the murder of four Pakistani men in Mitchells Plain two years ago.

Hendricks, along with co-accused Lehano Jansen and Mogamat Nasief de Villiers, was arrested shortly after Ghulum Baqar, Shahzad Ahmed, Adnan Haider and Muhammad Shafique were killed in Rocklands on March 19, 2013.

The State says a black Mercedes-Benz found near the crime scene, hijacked and used in the kidnapping of a man and a woman in Wetton a day before the murders, contained DNA evidence implicating Hendricks.

Investigating officer Sergeant Errol Bedford told the court that Hendricks had been taken to hospital after his arrest “when investigators received information that he had shot himself by mistake”.

Bedford said he saw “an infected fresh bullet wound that gave off a bad smell located on Hendricks’s groin” during the doctor’s examination.

Terry Dodgen, representing Hendricks, said his client would argue that the injury was “an infection from an old wound”.

Bedford said Hendricks told doctors at Groote Schuur hospital that he had been shot in 1994 and it was an old bullet wound. However, X-rays showed that there was another bullet in Hendricks’s thigh.

“Doctors found bullets in his leg and his groin but did not want to remove them. They were of the opinion, from what he told them, that the bullets had been lodged there for a long period,” Bedford said.

“They could not confirm or deny that the bullet in his groin was from 20 years ago or not - it didn’t bother him so they didn’t remove it,” Bedford said.

He said officers discovered the wound after De Villiers told police that Hendricks was injured. While at Pollsmoor, Hendricks was initially kept in a separate cell.

“We were concerned that they may remove the bullet,” Bedford said.

Dodgen told the court Hendricks had also been shot “nine times in his legs in 2006”.

The State says the bullet and a DNA match of skin cells on the steering wheel of the stolen Mercedes-Benz could be evidence placing Hendricks at the scene. Bedford said there was no DNA evidence linking De Villiers to the crime scene.

The trial continues.

natasha.prince@inl.co.za

Cape Argus