Alleged wife killer and Gqeberha businessman Arnold Terblanche has been afforded another bite at the cherry in his bid for bail after the city’s high court ordered that he be given the opportunity to present new facts and further evidence.
This was after the judge ruled that facts presented in his second bail application to the magistrate’s court were in fact new.
The court found that magistrate Kriban Pillay had erred in his approach to the determination of new facts by concluding that the evidence presented by Terblanche did not constitute new facts.
The matter has now been referred back to Pillay, or an alternative magistrate, to “urgently make a determination” of Terblanche’s bail application on new facts within seven days.
Terblanche has further been allowed to present any further new facts other than those presented during his April bail application, with the state then given “a reasonable opportunity” to respond.
It is understood Terblanche’s legal team will now approach the magistrate’s court to arrange a date for the matter to be heard.
Terblanche was arrested in November and charged with the murder of his estranged wife, Vicki.
He, Vicki’s boyfriend Reinhardt Leach and his friend, Dylan Cullis, face charges of murder and conspiracy to commit murder.
Leach and Cullis abandoned their bail applications, with Cullis indicating that he wished to plead guilty.
Vicki was reported missing on October 21 by Leach. It is alleged she was murdered on or about October 18.
Her body was found buried in a shallow grave on a plot in Greenbushes on October 23.
Magistrate Abigail Beaton ordered on Friday that the state serve Terblanche with his indictment and have a pretrial conference date at the high court by the time the matter returns to the lower court on October 28.
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