BELFAST – The photo of a badly assaulted young man (24) who died after being attacked on Friday evening is going viral on Facebook. Mr Pierre Etienne de Necker was declared brain-dead on Saturday and his family is now trying to piece together how the murder happened.
The photo of De Necker’s body was published on Facebook by his father, Lion, after he had obtained it in a bizarre way. According to information available to the family, the photo was taken by one of the attackers who sent it to his sister to brag about the assault. Someone who knew De Necker saw the photo and alerted the family about the incident.
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De Necker Sr told Lowvelder yesterday that his son and a friend went to the Shell Filling Station in a white Volkswagen Golf at about 20:30. He couldn’t say whether this vehicle was that of his son.
According to eyewitnesses, they were followed by four vehicles – a minibus taxi, a silver Mercedes-Benz, a red BMW and a blue vehicle of which the brand is unknown. He claimed that the occupants of the vehicle pulled out firearms upon which his son and the friend sped away. They turned into a cul de sac in Belfast Extention 2 and apparently the friend managed to flee from the scene.
This was when Pierre was attacked. De Necker Sr said eyewitnesses had told them that 12 men assaulted Pierre with bottles and pipes and kept on kicking him. “A woman on the scene took the photo of the badly injured Pierre and sent it to her brother who was still at the filling station. An employee of the filling station, saw the photo and recognised the victim as Pierre and alerted us.”
A firearm can be seen next to the man’s severely assaulted body, but De Necker Sr said his son did not own a firearm. “That firearm must have been that of one of the attackers and placed next to his body.”
De Necker Sr made the decision to share the post of his dying son on Facebook with the following inscription: “This post took guts. It is a photo one of the murderers took of my beautiful son. Pierre – after he was demolished by a group of 12 like barbarians. “Please share this worldwide. It was a racial murder. Black on white. Twelve or more against one white boy.”
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Soon after Censorbugbear shared the post under #hatemurder and by yesterday morning the post had been shared 5 657 times. Lowvelder asked Mr SC van Biljon from the filling station if he knew about an incident on Friday and he said he could confirm that Pierre was at the Shell garage, but that there had been no incident on the premises.
It was also reported on social media that a police officer attended to the scene, but that he was chased away. Lowvelder contacted the Belfast Police Station but the specific policeman was not available.
De Necker Sr said his son was taken to Belfast Hospital on Friday night where a doctor declared him brain-dead. He died at 15:15 on Saturday. “It was like a slaughtering,” he said. His grandmother, Ms Lydia Liversage, said, “We went to the scene yesterday (Sunday) and there was blood everywhere. Pierre also has two brothers, Jan-Lion and Dieter. His mother is Ms Catryn de Necker.
A post-mortem was scheduled in Middelburg yesterday. Local police spokesman Sgt Kwapa McDonald, said three men and a woman had been arrested in connection with the incident. They will appear in court on a charge of murder today.
