Meghan Cremer murder trial draws to a close in the Western Cape High Court
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Alleged killer Jeremy Sias was arrested with two others but four years later, he is still on trial for her murder – alone. Pic: Supplied
Cape Town - Alleged killer Jeremy Sias on Tuesday appeared in the Western Cape High Court as the State and defence presented arguments on conviction before Judge Elizabeth Baartman.
Sias is charged with four counts of murder, robbery with aggravating circumstances, theft and defeating the administration of justice, for his alleged attack on Cremer.
The showjumper’s body was found on August 8, 2019, with ribbons tied around her neck, hands and feet, five days after she was reported missing.
Initially Sias was arrested with two others but four years later, he is still on trial for her murder – alone. The father of four admitted from the outset that he disposed of her body but denied that he killed her.
On Tuesday his lawyer, advocate Mohamed Bashier Sibda, argued that “the police made up their minds at the outset that they had nabbed the culprit and shut down all other lines of inquiry”.
“More than that they excluded other streams of evidence that did not suit their narrative. The State failed to make out a proper case against Jeremy Sias,” Sibda said.
State advocate Emily van Wyk has faced a mammoth task in trying to secure a conviction, including a successful trial-within-a-trial which allowed the admission of audio-visual evidence of Sias saying that he was arrested for murder.
Van Wyk argued: “It is my humble submission that the evidence, pointing out by the accused of the body of the deceased, is of importance as it led to the establishment that the deceased had been murdered.”
She argued that if Cremer’s body had never been discovered, resulting in a post-mortem report, the State may never have solved the mystery of how she was killed.
In closing, Sibda pressed his point, “The only reasonable inference that can be drawn from the stratagem of the State is that in the investigation the image was enlarged; that the video footage was studied; and it was abundantly clear to the prosecution that it was indeed Meghan Cremer in the vehicle. A fact that obliterates the State’s theory of its case.”