Horror ordeal for couple in police cells
June 28 2014 at 01:13pm
By DUNCAN GUY
By DUNCAN GUY
dependent Newspaper
sFred Mason on oxygen at
home. He and his wife, Lindsay, spent six hours in the Pinetown police cells
after a labour dispute they believed had been put to rest. Picture: Duncan Guy
KwaZulu-Natal -
An elderly Hillcrest couple spent six hours in the
cells at Pinetown police station on Friday, the result of a labour dispute
which they believed had been resolved.
Now, Fred Mason, who suffers from a terminal lung
disease and needed an oxygen machine brought to him, will be instituting a
civil lawsuit against the police top brass who ordered that he and his wife,
Lindsay, 64, be arrested.
“My age is irrelevant,” said Mason, 74. “It was the
incompetence and high -handed dictatorial attitude.”
The couple’s lawyer, Jacques Botha, told The
Independent on Saturday their day’s horror ended when a prosecutor, for a second
time, refused to place charges against them on the roll.
But as they sat in the cells, earlier in the day, a
police colonel escalated initial charges of theft and assault against them to
one of robbery. They said it had its origins in an incident at their lubricant
supply business in Pinetown in March when they took back company property - a
cellphone and a tablet - from an employee who had been suspended.
They said they understood that their deal with the
now former employee and the CCMA involved his withdrawing the charges against
them.
Police on Friday confirmed the couple’s arrest but
said it related to car keys. Later in the day, they were unable to comment on
the robbery charge.
Mason said they had demanded company car keys from
the former employee but, upon realising that they had taken the wrong keys,
returned them to his home.
Their lawyer said the Natal High Court had clearly
stated that people should be brought to court only when necessary and by the
least invasive means possible, not to infringe on their rights and their
privacy.
During the first hours of their arrest, the Masons
shared a courtyard in the police cells with two young men who had been arrested
for holding up a woman at gunpoint.
Later, they were locked up in separate cells but in
shouting distance of one another.
“Our final guests were two who came in arrested for
hijacking,” said Fred.
“But there was also a human side,” added the former
career policeman with the British South Africa Police in the then-Rhodesia. The
policeman who arrested us was very professional, the epitome of a gentleman.”
Another detainee, he said, shouted to him: “Old
man, don’t worry. Be at peace.”
- Independent on Saturday
