Durban — Trial dates for a Phoenix man alleged to have torched his fiancée alive in their flat will be set for September, this is after his pre-trial conference reached its tail end on Thursday in the Durban High Court.
Shaun Naicker’s pre-trial completion had been delayed by evidence that he sought for his defence in the trial.
He is also charged with the theft of a VW Polo 6 TSI, three cell phones, a tablet, a laptop, jewellery, and sunglasses all items belonging to Nivashni “Jackie” Naidoo whom he is alleged to have murdered.
However, his defence is that he paid for these items and he needed his bank statement as well as cellphone records to prove this.
Which saw the State having to make an application for him in terms of section 205 of the Criminal Procedure Act 51 of 1977.
A judge issues an order on the received Section 205 application to subpoena the bank and or a service provider for the required data.
Naicker claims that he was paying for the car but it was under Naidoo’s name.
On Thursday, State Prosecutor Advocate Thabani Buthelezi indicated that all the records that Naicker required when it comes to the data for his defence had been obtained and handed over to his Legal Aid South Africa attorney Musa Chiliza.
The matter was then adjourned to September for trial dates to be set.
Naidoo and Naicker lived together in a flat with Naidoo’s 12-year-old son.
The State alleges that the circumstances around Naidoo’s murder were that during the morning of May 9, 2022, the couple were alone in their flat.
Further, in circumstances unknown to the State the accused set fire to the flat using an accelerant.
It is alleged that after removing the items he is accused of stealing he fled the scene in Naidoo’s car leaving her in the flat and she died in the fire.
According to the State, Naidoo had suffered physical abuse at the hands of the accused before she was murdered.
“During the evening of Saturday, June 26, 2021, the accused and Naidoo were in their flat. Naicker was intoxicated and they argued thereafter he left the flat. He returned in the early hours of the morning and assaulted the complainant repeatedly on the head with an iron bar. She was subsequently hospitalised,” reads Naicker’s indictment.
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