Police assault allegations surface in Joshlin Smith Trial

Accused number one, Jacquen Appollis in the Joshlin Smith kidnapping case in the High Court at Saldanha Bay on the Cape West Coast, has demonstrated in court how he claims police assaulted him with batons before he gave a statement in March last year. This as a trial within a trial to determine the admissibility of confessions of the accused, Appollis and Steveno Van Rhyn’s statements is underway.

The pair allege they were tortured and assaulted when the so-called confessions were obtained. Appollis has been under cross examination.

Appollis, Van Rhyn and Joshlin’s mother, Kelly Smith, are on trial for the child’s disappearance. Appollis has told the court that he was beaten after he told the police officers that he didn’t know where Joshlin is. He says he was handcuffed and suspended on an aluminium pole and assaulted.

“And two males took me from the chair and pressed me down to the ground. I was handcuffed. I was told to pull up my legs and then they shifted aluminium pipes behind my legs. Two males beat me up,” Appollis says.

He said the men who assaulted him, he presumed to be police officers forced him to say that Joshlin’s mother, Kelly Smith had instructed him to take the child to a sangoma who was going to give him an amount of R20 000.

“They told me that now you are going to Kelly, then you must tell Kelly that Kelly sent you to take the child to Makhalima and Makhalima is going to give R20 000…. I did” Appollis elaborates.

Appollis also alleged that the officers told him not to disclose the truth to the doctor about how he sustained his injuries. He said he didn’t report the assault because he was afraid of the police and further torture.

Meanwhile, the state has questioned the credibility of Appollis’ version of how he sustained his injuries.

“If we are to accept as the court what you say, we would’ve seen injuries underneath your feet as well as all other parts you indicated. In fact you said your whole back was beaten. Do you know why, if that is true,e the doctor didn’t note? That is what I pointed out to the doctor…. Okay,” state prosecutor, Advocate Aradhana Heeramun says.

The trial will resume on Tuesday.

VIDEO | The Joshlin Smith kidnapping trial continues – 11 April 2025