Private eye and co-accused acquitted on assault charges

Private eye Brad Nathanson says he feels vindicated after being discharged on criminal assault charges yesterday. The Witness reports Nathanson and his colleague Shane Brits were acquitted on two charges of assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm on Bernice Rich and her former fiancé, Glen Galley, in an incident in 2017. The Mpumalanga Magistrate’s Court in Hammarsdale granted an application for their discharge brought by their attorney, Alex Crockart. This followed a decision by the prosecution to close its case despite not having called Galley to testify in the matter. Crockart said that Rich had given ‘poor’ evidence which was full of contradictions. During cross examination, she had even admitted to lying about some evidence. He said she had ‘flippantly smiled’ while admitting to fabricating evidence, and that she had admitted under cross examination that she had in fact instigated the alleged fracas by pushing Nathanson. Magistrate TS Boloko agreed that there were several ‘loopholes’ in Rich’s evidence. ‘What she’s done in court is highly unusual,’ Boloko said. ‘At my age, I’m seeing it for the first time – admitting to fabricating evidence, saying ‘I can’t recall’, ‘I don’t know’, ‘ignore my statement and use my oral evidence’, and admitting to lying under oath’. Boloko agreed with the defence that the pair could not be convicted of assaulting Rich on the strength of her evidence. He said they also could not be convicted of an assault on Galley because he did not present any evidence for the state’s case. As a result Boloko acquitted both men.

Full report in The Witness (subscription needed)