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Wrongful
arrest pay-out
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Judge Strydom said Hugo had never been locked up before and had
experienced his arrest in front of his friends and his detention as
humiliating.
A PRETORIA man who was so scared while he was wrongfully held in custody that he did not shower for 10 days, has been awarded R70 000 damages. Acting Judge JJ Strydom awarded the amount to Thys Hugo, a panelbeater from Riviera in Pretoria for his unlawful arrest and detention in June 2009 on charges of housebreaking and assault. Hugo told the court he had gone to the Wonderboom police station after being told his brother-in-law had been arrested. But on his arrival he was asked to remove his shoelaces and was promptly locked up in a police cell. He said no one told him why he had been arrested and even the magistrate could not tell him where the alleged housebreaking was supposed to have been committed. He only appeared before a magistrate 33 hours after his arrest and had to remain in custody at the Pretoria Central Prison for a further seven days on the orders of the magistrate before all charges were dropped against him. Hugo was not allowed to phone his family from the police cells and was robbed of his ring and shirt by fellow detainees in the court cells. He was only allowed to phone his father for the first time after being taken to prison. He did concede that he had not been treated any worse than other detainees. He lost his job and accommodation due to his incarceration and was forced to live with his girlfriend’s parents until he found a job three months later. He also stopped playing basketball because he was ridiculed about his imprisonment. Strydom said the police could not be held liable for Hugo’s unlawful detention after his first 33 hours in custody because a magistrate had ordered his further incarceration and Hugo did not join the Justice Minister as a defendant in his damages claim. By Ilse de Lange The Citizen 04/04/13 |
Sunday, July 5, 2015
Crimes of the South African Police Service
