Hardened inmates terrorise cellmates at courts
By Max Matavire
Source: The Herald Online
AWAITING-TRIAL prisoners are being robbed by fellow prisoners in the underground holding cells at the New Law Courts as they wait to appear in court.
Sources claim prisoners are packed like sardines in the holding cells as they are brought in for their court appearances from the different police stations around the city and from prisons like St Albans.
Port Elizabeth area police said yesterday they would investigate the matter.
The St Albans prisoners are hardened criminals who would be in jail for years. Most of them are facing serious and violent crimes like armed robbery, murder, rape and assault.
These have formed themselves into gangs and terrorise their awaiting-trial fellow prisoners in the courthouse.
Police looking after the prisoners at the court’s underground holding cells yesterday confirmed that they had heard reports of such robberies, but no cases had been opened as “no one reported the incidents”.
Inspector William van der Mescht, in charge of receiving the prisoners at the holding cells and making sure they are referred to the correct courts, yesterday also agreed that there was no proper supervision.
“Yes, we have heard about it but we can only do something if people lodge complaints and open cases against the perpetrators,” he said.
He admitted police did not enter the cells to inspect. “The cells are very small and crowded.I am not a prisoner so I do not know what exactly happens in there.”
A source who works at the New Law Courts, who declined to be named for fear of victimisation, said this week it was “amazing” that people were robbed inside the court building and nobody paid attention.
Inside the cells, he said, gangsters lined up the other prisoners against the wall on one side and went around turning their pockets out as they searched for money, cigarettes, jewellery, almost anything.
If anyone resisted, the gangsters beat them up. The loot collected was shared among the gangsters. The source said police officers in charge of the cells were aware of what was happening inside but did nothing.
Port Elizabeth area police spokesman Sergeant Thembi Gwe said yesterday police were not aware of the situation, but would follow it up.
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