Double murder accused Johannes de Jager was the last person sex worker Hiltina Alexander was seen with, a court heard.
|||Cape Town - When a friend of murdered sex worker Hiltina Alexander confronted Johannes de Jager at his workshop, De Jager pulled a gun on him, the Western Cape High Court heard on Thursday.
De Jager has pleaded not guilty to raping and strangling Hiltina, 18, and also to murdering Charmaine Mare, 16, and mutilating her body by severing her limbs and burning it.
Colin Jacobs told the court that two weeks after his friend Hiltina disappeared, he recognised De Jager’s bakkie while walking in Epping Avenue. Jacobs had last seen Hiltina alive on May 18, 2008 as she got into De Jager’s bakkie. She told Jacobs she would not be long, but never returned.
The next day a woodcutter found her body in the bushes off the N7 near Frankdale informal settlement.
However, Jacobs did not know she was dead and had looked for her. On June 3, 2008, he saw De Jager’s bakkie parked outside a workshop in Epping Avenue. Accompanied by several friends, Jacobs approached the workshop gate to find out who the bakkie belonged to.
As De Jager neared the entrance carrying keys and a lock, Jacobs claimed he recognised him as the man who had picked up Hiltina. Jacobs believed De Jager also recognised him and tried to close the workshop.
Jacobs told the court he grabbed De Jager’s keys and the lock, but then De Jager drew a firearm and Jacobs handed the keys and lock back.
In his plea explanation, De Jager said he had been on his way out to buy a tool when he saw a crowd of about 12 people outside. They shouted: “It’s him, it’s him. He is going nowhere.” Jacobs denied this.
Sakkie Maartens, for De Jager, said De Jager had felt threatened.
Jacobs said: “It’s possible. He didn’t know why we were there and because he disappeared he didn’t give me a chance to explain.”
The police arrested De Jager shortly afterwards. Later that day, Jacobs told Hiltina’s cousin he thought he had found the man she had gone off with.
De Jager appeared in the Atlantis Magistrate’s Court for Hiltina’s murder but the case was withdrawn because witnesses were untraceable. The charges were resurrected when De Jager was arrested for the murder of Charmaine and the mutilation of her body in January.
Earlier this week, De Jager denied raping and murdering Hiltina. He also denied murdering Charmaine, saying she died after she slipped in the bathroom.
But he admitted that he had panicked and “foolishly” hid her body in a drain in Windsor Park, Kraaifontein. Later, to get her out of the drain, he said he had to cut off her limbs.
jade.otto@inl.co.za
Cape Argus