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Joshlin’s mother, Kelly Smith, her boyfriend, Jacquen Appollis, and Steveno van Rhyn are facing charges of kidnapping and trafficking related to the child’s disappearance.
A trial within a trial to determine the admissibility of the accused Jacquen Appollis and Steveno van Rhyn’s statements in the Joshlin Smith kidnapping and human trafficking trial is expected to resume in the High Court in Saldanha Bay in the Western Cape today.
The pair, along with the child’s mother Kelly Smith are on trial for her disappearance in February last year.
Appollis and Van Rhyn gave their statements between the 4th and 5th of March last year. They, however, contend that their statements were given under duress and they were tortured by police into making the so-called confessions.
In his statement, Van Rhyn says he accompanied Appollis on the 19th of February last year to take the girl to the home of a person only known as Makalimo on the instruction of Kelly Smith.
He says they left the child there and that he did not see her again.
According to Appollis’s statement, on the Sunday before the child went missing, Kelly Smith told him she was tired of Joshlin’s father wanting her to give them the child.
Joshlin Smith | Accused claim police torture:
