JUDGE WILSON
: Paragraph 24?
ADV. MTHEMBU: Yes, Mr Chairperson.
INSP. DE LA REY: The brown suitcase was hidden under a bed and accused No. 1 took me into the house, he took me directly to the room, he personally took out this suitcase from under the bed and there I went through the contents and after that he took me to the kitchen where the cassettes and the first aid kit were taken out of the oven and the other items in the vehicle were not identified to me in person, it was in the course of the investigation that the vehicle was searched and gone through and the other things mentioned in paragraph 25 were found in the vehicle. Goods mentioned in 24 were identified to me by accused No. 1.
ADV. MTHEMBU: But Inspector, accused, Mr May, according to your version he was brought to you by a member or members of the public at House No. 1663. Is that correct and that is where you found the deceased's vehicle? Now before even going to effect further arrests of the other accused or applicants why did you not search House No. 1663 to find if you will find any articles that are connected or linked with articles removed from Mr Fourie's farm?
INSP. DE LA REY: Mr Chairperson, at that stage I already had evidence such as the watches, the firearms which accused No. 1 could be related to the charge and I found from experience that if you delay too much at one particular place in the day before starting to look for the other persons then evidence disappears because their bush telegram is running fast and then the evidence can be lost and the suspects can escape so we acted immediately, you will notice at 337 K after we arrested accused 2 and 3 there, we locked the house with the purpose of first going to look for the other suspects and after we had found all the suspects then we went back to the houses and then we confiscated the other items, so it was just to save time to get hold of the other people that we did this.
ADV. DE JAGER: Mr De la Rey, you have been asked what Sgt. van der Watt gave to you? It's the brown leather bag, the bullets, the firearm?
INSP. DE LA REY: That is correct.
ADV. DE JAGER: I don't know if it is a dispute, I know it is a hearsay but where would he have got these things.
INSP. DE LA REY: In the statement of Sgt. van der Watt and what he told me orally, it was quite a distance from the house where the vehicle was found in the vicinity of another house and I think it is probably 200 m, if I can estimate the distance from the house where we were. He found this in another yard, the jacket was lying there, the firearm was under the car.
ADV. MTHEMBU: In view of the fact that the bush telegram goes faster, but not searching House No. 1663 at the time when you arrested Mr May, didn't it occur to you that maybe there will be evidence in that house which could be tampered with if you had to come at a later stage?