Marchell Taljaard 17. Palm Ridge magistrate's court houses trial for Johannesburg High Court: -- Roxanne Henderson reported in The Times of Johannesburg on 24 August 2015 from the Palm Ridge - Johannesburg High court venue that the court heard testimony on the three accused men's 'attempts to sexually mutilate Boksburg teen Marchell Taljaard 17 with a plastic pipe". They had then jumped on her head and crushed her skull with bricks. She was found only 100metres from her parental home on a Bokburg North smallholding. She was trying to go home when she was murdered on 12 March 2012. The trial is still going on... On 24 August 2015, Charles Simmers, one of the three men charged with strangling and beating the Afrikaans teenage girl to death, has come clean and admitted to the crime.
Simmers‚ who had been released on bail,was re-arrested in July 2015 after being on the run and evading trial for more than a year. It wasn't reported if the other two accused men had been granted bail or not. In April the father of the murdered girl said in a newspaper interview that he was furious about the fact that Simmers was still on the run after having been granted bail for such a serious sexually-predatory crime.
http://m.timeslive.co.za/local/?articleId=15398302
The Johannesburg High Court‚ sitting at the Palm Ridge Magistrate's Court southeast of Johannesburg‚ heard
Charles Simmers’ confession on Monday. He was testifying in his defence.
Simmers‚ 29‚ said that had he lied in court previously because he was afraid‚ but he had realised that he will “get nowhere” if he continued to lie. He then told the court that he was responsible for teen Marchell Taljaard's death.
He and co-accused Vernon Lawrence‚ 25‚ and Daniel Baartman‚ 30‚ allegedly attacked and killed Taljaard‚ 17‚ near her home in Boksburg in March 2012.
They are also accused of stealing her cell phone and jewellery and attempting to insert a hard plastic pipe into her vagina.
They had originally pleaded not guilty‚ but Simmers has now admitted that he had pleaded incorrectly.
Simmers told the court that he and Lawrence strangled and beat Taljaard‚ but that the intention was not to kill her. They only wanted to steal her cell phone‚ he said.
He said that Baartman kept watch while he and Lawrence attacked Taljaard‚ although he denies sexually assaulting her.
The men strangled Taljaard until she lost consciousness because they were afraid she would scream for help when they robbed her‚ Simmers said.
The three men - who according to previous testimony by the girls niece and nephew who had gone with her to a disco in Boksburg on the night of the murder, the three men didn't know the girl before - had followed her home and had hit the young Afrikaans teen over the head when she said she wanted to go inside.
They knocked her unconscious and pawned a gold ring and a gold chain they had ripped off her body.
Lawrence grabbed her and strangled her‚ Simmers said.
He and Lawrence then dragged her into a nearby veld where they kicked Taljaard and stomped on her head‚ he said.
Simmers said the men left Taljaard in the veld‚ believing she was unconscious‚ and pawned her cell phone to buy two bags of methcathinone‚ a drug also known as cat.
He said they were all under the influence of Cat amphetamines and alcohol when they attacked Taljaard.
Judge Nicoline Janse van Nieuwenhuizen paused the state's cross examination of Simmers to ask Lawrence
"why he was laughing during the proceedings. A life has been taken here. Do you know how serious that is?” she asked.
Lawrence then apologised for his behaviour.
Simmers‚ who had been released on bail,was re-arrested in July 2015 after being on the run and evading trial for more than a year.
http://m.timeslive.co.za/local/?articleId=15398302
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Trial: 25 July 2014: The Johannesburg High Court case of the murder- and sexual hatecrime suspects Charles Simmers (26),
Vernon “Poenkie” Beaucanon (21) and Daniel Baartman (27)
had to be postponed because Simmers had a hospital appointment.
Judge Nicoline Janse van Nieuwenhuizen postponed the case to friday.
The macrabre murder scene where the girl'sbody was found on 12 March 2012 near her parental home at a smallholding in
Boksburg North spoke vividly of the horrific suffering the young girl had been put through by the three male tormentors.
She was found about 100metres from her home, amongst rocks and rubbish.
The Taljaard teen had gone out with her nephew and niece the night before, and the three men chatted her up
outside a disco where the girls were waiting for their nephew and his girlfriend.
The teen didn't know the men nor realised that they were under the influence of CAt amphetamine.
Miss Taljaard wanted to go home and after the friendly chat outside the disco, she innocently hugged each man to say goodbye.
At that point the three men grabbed her from behind, strangling her until she passed out.
They grabbed her cellphone and her gold chain and a ring which the three addicts used to buy more Cat.
The suspects admitted that they 'tried to rape her with a PVC pipe in her vagina'.
However the forensic evidence showed that she was severely mutilated. When the girl woke up one of them repeatedly jumped on her head - and her skull was crushed with
a brick. She died a bit later. It's not known how she ended up only 100 metres from her parental home on a smallholding outside Boksburg.
MURDER
#StopWhiteGenocideInSA
