Ex-bouncer Gary
Beuthin could get bail
The Johannesburg High Court has
opened the way for former bouncer Gary Beuthin to be
freed on bail.
In
an order granted today, it set aside the Correctional
Services Department’s decision to revoke Beuthin’s
parole.
It also ordered that he
be transferred "with immediate effect" to Johannesburg
prison’s Medium A section for awaiting trial prisoners.
Beuthin had claimed
that, among other things, he was being "severely
victimised and intimidated" by the prison authorities
and was not being treated in the same way as other
prisoners accused of committing crimes while out on
parole.
He was released on
parole on June 8 2007, having served 15 years of a 25
year sentence for kidnapping and assaulting his former
girlfriend, Jill Reeves.
He was arrested on
November 20 for the alleged kidnapping and assault of
former Hell’s Angel president Eduard Jacobs, and alleged
possession of a firearm and ammunition.
Although initially kept
in police holding cells, he was transferred two days
later to Johannesburg prison’s Medium A section
"... At no point was I
ever given any written or verbal warnings by my parole
officer for conduct in conflict with my parole
conditions and I indeed reported to my parole officer in
November 2007," Beuthin wrote in the founding affidavit
in his notice of motion.
"... On 30 November I
was informed that I could not be monitored whilst
incarcerated and my parole was revoked. I was
transferred from Medium A... to... Medium B..., which is
for sentenced inmates.
"I wish to state, no
hearing regarding my parole has ever taken place, ever
before a court or the parole board committee. I
emphasise that... I was merely informed that my parole
had been revoked without giving me an opportunity to
make representations in this regard."
In the meantime, he
further charged, the Department of Correctional Services
had made threats to transfer him to other prisons,
including those outside the Johannesburg area.
In the order granted on
Tuesday, Johannesburg High Court ruled that "pending the
finalisation of any criminal matter against the
applicant or the applicant being granted bail, the
applicant is to be detained at Medium A Johannesburg
Correctional Centre".
Even though he was at
court representing himself, Beuthin was not immediately
aware that the order had been granted.
He was left standing in
the corridor outside the court while correctional
services attorney Daniel Mpanza was dealing with the
matter inside.
Asked by judge Ralph
Zulman whether Beuthin was in the court, Mpanza appeared
to indicate that he was.
In fact, Beuthin was in
a slanging match outside with warders he accused of
swearing at him, and telling him to move from where he
was packing his bags in readiness for his court
appearance.
Dressed in a bright
orange prison overall and wearing leg irons, Beuthin was
taken to the court’s holding cells without setting foot
in the courtroom after Mpanza came out.
He had told Zulman that
correctional services agreed to the terms of the order,
and it was summarily granted.
This included the
postponement until June 3 of a ruling on Beuthin’s
request for written feedback on a complaint he made in
the prison register and for correctional services’
assistance, and not hindrance, in his preparations for
his pending criminal case.
In a hearing on the
same matter last month, the Johannesburg High Court
chastised the state attorney’s office for its handling
of the matter.
It ordered that he be
given the medication and special high protein vegetarian
diet he needed.
At court on Tuesday to
support Beuthin was his fiancee, Melanie van Niekerk,
who is accused with him in the Jacobs case, with Warren
Schertel.
Van Niekerk and
Schertel are out on bail of R10,000 each.
The trial of the three
has been set down for hearing in the Johannesburg High
Court from October 20 until November 28.
