Tygerberg Hospital staff “initially didn’t notice” that Charlene Luyt, 16, who survived after an alleged attempt on her life, had a gunshot wound to the head, a police officer has told the Cape High Court.

But the defence team for Michael Paulse – the alleged Belhar drug dealer and taxi boss accused of killing Charlene’s teenage sister Angelique, 15, in July last year and then shooting her in the head – claims the State has no medical evidence that Charlene was ever shot.

And lawyers Craig Webster and Colin Geoffreys, who are fighting for Paulse to be granted bail, also allege that, a day after the two girls had been discovered lying on a Belhar field, Charlene told a family member that Angelique had shot herself.

In an apparent blow to the State’s case against Paulse, a district surgeon’s medical report noted that Charlene had bruising to her eyes and blood in her hair but made no reference to her having being shot.

Angelique may have shot herself
“One would have thought that a bullet wound to the head would be a hard injury to miss,” Webster commented to detective inspector Pieter Joubert, who revealed to the court on Monday that even he had been unaware that Charlene had sustained any gunshot wounds to her head when he first saw her in hospital.

Joubert claimed that the surgeon’s report had not mentioned the gunshot wound to Charlene’s head because the doctor who examined her was only looking for evidence that she might have been sexually assaulted.

He also suggested that mention of the wound might have been made after Charlene was transferred to another hospital.

Webster then put it on record that, despite “repeated” requests to State advocate Adam Mohlala, Paulse’s defence team had still not been given any reports that confirmed that Charlene had been shot.

The report may prove crucial to the State’s case, which, Webster argued, suggested that Angelique – who was found with gunshot residue on her hands and sleeve – may have shot herself during a game of Russian roulette.

The State alleges that Paulse put a single bullet into the chamber of his gun before spinning it, putting the weapon against his head and pulling the trigger.

He then allegedly put the gun against Angelique’s chest and shot her.

Paulse has claimed that his alcohol and drug abuse at the time of the shooting left him without any memory of what had happened.

This article was originally published on page 6 of Cape Argus on December 20, 2005

Source: Independent Online (IOL)
URL: http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click…/p>