Court hears voice note of PI bragging that he ‘tortured’ alleged rapist in Siam Lee case
Private investigator Brad Nathanson had earlier disputed the allegations of torture and assault.
The late Siam Lee.
The defence continued with its attack on the state’s evidence as the bail hearing of the man accused of kidnapping and murdering Siam Lee rolled into its ninth day at the Durban Magistrates’ Court yesterday, Northglen News reports.
The self-proclaimed businessman cannot be named, as he also faces a rape charge.
READ MORE: Siam Lee accused blows kisses in court as state adds additional charges
Earlier this month, the state revealed damning evidence that a tracking device linked the accused to Margaret Maytom Avenue in Durban North, where Lee disappeared in January, as well as the site where her body was found dumped and burnt in New Hanover a few days later.
However, today the defence unveiled its own trump card.
A voice recording was played in court, in which advocate Martin Krog proposed that private investigator Brad Natahanson could be heard bragging about the alleged torture and assault of the 29-year-old man.
Nathanson and his team arrested the accused in January at his Assagay home days after Lee’s body was discovered.
“He did not intend to kill Siam, it just went wrong. It is just he f***** up. He has done this to girls before. In fact, in 2016, I profiled this guy for another abduction of a girl that [was] abducted in Northdene from one of these happy houses and raped at gunpoint in a home in Assagay. Same house, same guy. In fact, he confessed to the rape last night while wearing a KFC packet,” the court heard in the recording.
Earlier, the investigating officer, warrant officer Ragan Govender, testified that Nathanson claimed he had no knowledge of the alleged torture and assault.
In addition to this, Krog also put it to Govender that he believed no attempt had been made by Nathanson or the previous investigating officer to obtain a warrant before entering the accused property or seizing his vehicle, and that he essentially “broke into the accused’s home”.
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