The National Prosecuting Authority has stated that the 18-year-old who stands accused of Overberg High schoolgirl Deveney Nel’s murder in August 2024 currently faces a charge of murder and another of defeating the ends of justice and not of rape as other publications suggested.
Eric Ntabazalila, spokesperson for the NPA in the Western Cape, told Hermanus Times: “The child in conflict with the law is currently facing charges of murder and defeating the administration of justice. No other charge has been added as we speak.”
This comes after a well-known Afrikaans-language newspaper reported that a rape charge had been added to the young accused’s charge sheet.
The NPA, however, did not rule the possibility out that more charges, including a rape charge, could be added at a later stage.
Ntabazalila explained: “The investigation is continuing and we hope to be able to put all the charges to the accused when we transfer the matter to the high court. On the day we will hand the indictment outlining all the charges we are levelling against the accused over. But presently he is facing these two charges.”
The case against the teenager was postponed to 23 July “for transfer to the High Court” in the Caledon Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday 25 June.
He was found fit to stand trial after undergoing a month-long psychiatric evaluation at Valkenberg Psychiatric Hospital at the beginning of the year.
The accused was arrested on Friday 16 August 2024 only hours after attending a memorial service for Deveney that was restricted to staff and learners of Overberg High and their parents. Her body was discovered in a store room at the Caledon school after an extensive search, and after she had been reported missing by her mother when she failed to appear for her lift from school to their home in Grabouw on Wednesday 7 August. The accused, who was 17 at the time of his arrest, was initially held at a centre for youths in conflict with the law, but was moved to a regular prison after turning 18 in April. He will, however, still be tried as a minor under the Child Justice Act because he was legally a minor at the time of his arrest. It is also the reason that he cannot be named.
