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INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPERS<\/p>\n
Hector Britts, who was released from police custody on R10 000 bail, has said he will plead not guilty to the murder of club patron Craigh Botha. Picture: Sandile Makhoba<\/p>\n
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Related Stories<\/p>\n
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Durban – Murder-accused bouncer Hector Britts did not shoot Craigh Botha. Nor did he know who did, the Durban Magistrate\u2019s Court heard on Wednesday. <\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t own a firearm and no firearm was seized from me. I would be surprised if any of the witnesses indicate that they saw me in possession of a firearm and that they witnessed me shooting the deceased,\u201d the 33-year-old said in an affidavit read out by his attorney, Ridwaan Sayed. <\/p>\n
Britts was applying for bail, which was opposed by the State, but granted nonetheless. <\/p>\n
He stands accused of having shot and killed Botha, 38, earlier this month but intends to plead not guilty. <\/p>\n
Britts was working at the Rocca Bar nightclub in Durban that evening and claims Botha, a patron, attacked him \u201cby throwing a flurry of punches\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cI was taken by surprise and did not even have an opportunity to retaliate. It was at this stage that somebody shot the deceased,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
For the State, public prosecutor Blackie Swart read out investigating officer Selvan Naidoo\u2019s affidavit opposing Britts\u2019s release. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe applicant is well aware that the State has a strong case against him. That constitutes a temptation for him to flee in order for him not to stand trial,\u201d it said. It also said Britts\u2019s criminal profile, which included his being convicted of fraud in 1999, a pending charge of assault and numerous charges (such as attempted murder and armed robbery) which were withdrawn \u2013 had somehow become public knowledge. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis has instilled fear in witnesses who have not yet submitted statements.\u201d <\/p>\n
Finally, the community had \u201cdemanded\u201d bail be withheld, the affidavit said, and Britts\u2019s release would jeopardise the public\u2019s confidence in the criminal justice system. <\/p>\n
Sayed argued that Britts had been employed in the municipality\u2019s fire and disaster management division for 13 years and owned the Newlands East home in which he lived with his wife, Lauren, along with three of his five children. <\/p>\n
Britts had not travelled outside the country, did not own a passport and was not a flight risk. Sayed said the court could not be swayed by public emotion and that a bail application was not \u201ca forum for anticipatory punishment\u201d. <\/p>\n
Magistrate Vanitha Armu appeared to agree and set bail at R10 000. Botha\u2019s family was \u201cvery, very disappointed.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cI have heard of house robbers\u2019 bail being set higher,\u201d his brother, Andrew, said. <\/p>\n
Britts is expected back in court next month. <\/p>\n
The Mercury <\/strong> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPERS Hector Britts, who was released from police custody on R10 000 bail, has said he will plead not guilty to the murder of club patron Craigh Botha. Picture: Sandile Makhoba Related Stories Father shot at KZN bar dies Bouncer appears over nightclub death Murder accused not a registered bouncer Shot execution-style Durban – […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[8275,953,2143],"class_list":{"0":"post-22083","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-durban","8":"tag-newspaper","9":"tag-the-mercury","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22083"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22083\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}