GUILTY South Africa - Gill Packham, 57, murdered, Cape Town, 22 February, 2018 *arrest*

[mrjitty]

RP responds to State's theory on him cooking up an alibi: "I hear your speculation but it is not true. Not at all."

SG: I will argue that your initial thought was to create the impression that you were actually at work. That’s why you sent your colleague the message on Sunday evening to remember the lie you had told him. You then developed new info of looking for car.

This is great X

His story makes no sense - especially not the version he is telling now.

But it does make sense if he was building an alibi of being at work.

 

[JudgeJudi]

This is great X

His story makes no sense - especially not the version he is telling now.

But it does make sense if he was building an alibi of being at work.

Totally agree. I'd like him to produce a receipt for his "new" tyres. He's very arrogant and Galloway will surely take him down. This will be easy for her compared to Henri. By the way, did you watch all that trial, and if so, did you enjoy it. I absolutely loved it.

 

[mrjitty]

I went back to JJ's helpful notes on JvR's evidence

So RB was allegedly looking for his wife all over the place at this time. So if his Gill called or visited his offices - shouldn't he want JvR to let him know? Why get JvR to lie to Gill? This makes no sense.

JvR said #Packham called him at 12:23, while with other colleagues. He asked him to move away from the people he was with. He said "buddy, buddy" that he was driving around looking for Gill and that she hadn't been seen since 07:00.

JvR said #Packham told him Gill and Nicola had a fight with him the previous night. He asked JvR to tell anyone who asks that they had been in a meeting at 08:30. JvR said he agreed because Packham was the general manager and was looking for his wife.

 

[mrjitty]

Totally agree. I'd like him to produce a receipt for his "new" tyres. He's very arrogant and Galloway will surely take him down. This will be easy for her compared to Henri. By the way, did you watch all that trial, and if so, did you enjoy it. I absolutely loved it.

I haven't finished it all no! I got sidetracked with McStay and real life!

But thanks for putting it all together for me

 

[JudgeJudi]

 

[JudgeJudi]

We are back. SG wants clarity on tyres. SG: In all fairness to you, I want to put to you what I am going to argue at the end of the day and you can comment if you want.

SG: You were scared police might link you to the scene where the BMW was found burning, your wife's vehicle, and you had also heard in the news that the witnesses had seen someone running away.

RP: I am confused about the tyre pictures not matching but I would like to state for the record that I did not change the tyres on my motor car. Any confusion rests with the police force and some internal problems there.

RP: I was at my sister’s home in Tokai until 9:20 on the night of 22 Feb 2018, so there is absolutely no doubt that I was not present at Diep River railway station when these alleged activities took place. As the cellphone records will prove.

Team News24 (@TeamNews24) | Twitter

 

[mrjitty]

Wow - he is such a liar

"popped down to the nursery" LOL

 

[JudgeJudi]

RP on his wife's favourite nursery he visited, in the hopes she would be there: "I drove in and drove out." Map below shows nursery is close to Diep River train station, where his wife's burnt BMW and body were later found.



Team News24 (@TeamNews24) | Twitter

 

[mrjitty]

RP on his wife's favourite nursery he visited, in the hopes she would be there: "I drove in and drove out." Map below shows nursery is close to Diep River train station, where his wife's burnt BMW and body were later found.

View attachment 179759

Team News24 (@TeamNews24) | Twitter

Gosh what a coincidence

 

[JudgeJudi]

SG: Does this [cellphone mapping expert's] timeline fit in with your knowledge or memory of that afternoon? RP: Yes it does.

SG wonders why there had to be a discussion between RP, his daughters and sister about whether to put a post about his missing wife on social media.
RP: I said [to my daughter] we should give it a try.

SG: Why didn't you post something on Facebook to alert people that Gill was missing? RP: I must admit I didn't think of it during the course of the day. I also don't think I have a large enough network.

Court adjourns for lunch

Team News24 (@TeamNews24) | Twitter

 

[tmar]

Susan Galloway is like a 'dog with a bone'.
Love it.
I think here, she is even better than at the van Breda case.

I am hoping we find evidence that RP was not at his sister's home, during the crucial hours, AND there is evidence of a pile of old tyres, or new tyres being purchased.
I am waiting........
THEN, the look on his arrogant face.
MOO.

 

[Interested Bystander]

SG is warming up . His 'tales' of what he did in the morning strongly suggest premeditation to me. He must have burnt the midnight oil thinking through his plan. I am a little concerned as to how he hoodwinked his daughter/s. He looks as though he finds lying easy and possibly it is a longstanding trait (guessing). If I am right, one would have thought being raised by a liar/cheat would have primed them to the possibility that his story was false.

Did I read somewhere one of them if going to testify against him?

 

[mrjitty]

Packham's attempt to dispute that the photos of his car tires are of his car is hilarious

Reading back the defence's admissions on evidence was a hilarious move from SG

 

[mrjitty]

I don't know the timeline of the case that well.

When would he have changed the tires?

Did the police get photos before and after?

 

[JudgeJudi]

Did I read somewhere one of them if going to testify against him?

Yes, his youngest daughter, Nicola. Read all of it. He's disgusting and just used his daughter. No wonder she wanted to escape to the UK.

Gill and Rob Packham’s youngest daughter, Nicola, will be called to testify against her father in his trial. It is expected that she will shed light on her father’s infidelities, which she kept secret from her mother for years until a few months before she was murdered.

When Detectives apparently got wind that Nicola was about to fly to the UK and was unsure if she would be returning to South Africa, they served her with a subpoena last month. They are aware that she is very close to her father and is reluctant to testify against him.

It is common knowledge among Gill’s friends that Nicola was aware of her father’s infidelities. She became aware of his activities when she was in high school after finding evidence on his cell phone. After confronting her father, he promised her he would change his ways, but he continued his sexual behaviour right through her university years.

“She didn’t want to tell Gill because she didn’t want to hurt her mother or get her father into trouble. Nicola is very much daddy’s little girl. It was a terrible secret for a daughter to keep. No child should be put in that position.”

When she finished her studies at University and knew that she was relocating to Johannesburg, she stopped covering for her dad. “She knew she was no longer going to be around to control him”. “Gill was distressed. She was oblivious of Rob’s secret sex life. All hell broke lose. She tried to save her marriage. Five months later she was dead.”

A week later, while detectives were telling Nicola and her sister Kerry that the burnt body in the boot was their mother, their father was arrested at home while he partied with friends. From that moment on, Nicola has believed that her father has been falsely accused of murdering her mother and has demonstrated it in public by being one of his most constant supporters during his numerous court appearances.

“Rob sat her down, looked at her in the eye and told her he didn’t murder her mother,” said the source. “And she believes her father.”

 

[JudgeJudi]

I don't know the timeline of the case that well.

When would he have changed the tires?

Did the police get photos before and after?

The mystery of two different types of tyres came under the spotlight during the testimony of Captain van der Westhuizen, a supervisor within the provincial crime scene investigations team, who was also a fingerprint, shoe print and tyre track analyst.

He told the court he was tasked with comparing two different types of tyres with what was found on the crime scene to form a conclusion.

On August 3 last year, he had the opportunity to examine the tyres on Packham's white Audi Q5 at the Diep River police station. He said "The pattern was totally different," referring to the comparison with photos of a tyre track impression at the crime scene.

He then compared the crime scene tyre impression with photos of the vehicle taken shortly after the murder, and found that the Audi's tyres at that stage could possibly have made the impression.

Van der Westhuizen said the zig-zag pattern was the same but he could not find any unique marks on the crime scene print to be absolutely sure.

 

[JudgeJudi]

Just bringing forward some of the earlier history.

Labuschagne asked RP if he knew whether his wife was having an affair. "He immediately said no." He then asked if the married couple had an argument or fight. He said Packham was silent for a while. "Then he said yes, they had a fight the previous night but by the time she left for work, it was all resolved."

Labuschagne told Galloway that RP sounded very calm and collected. Adv. Webster, SC questioned this assessment, considering the police officer had never met his client before and did not know his mannerisms. Labuschagne replied he had been working with people for 27 years and could read body language pretty well. "If my wife was missing, I would be agitated and would want to be helped immediately." Instead, he said RP sat quietly, looked collected and had "fluid" hand movements while busy with his phone.

Adv. Webster asked CP's sister, Judith Markwell, how CP seemed when she saw him. She replied that he was emotional, "very distraught", and didn't know where else to look for his wife. He had also cried.

Wife murderers always cry … for themselves, and they always choose the moment they consider appropriate to do so, e.g. at their wife's funeral, in front of their sister, in court, yada yada yada.

 

[JudgeJudi]

Did you know that Cape Town is one of the most violent cities in the world. No. 15 to be precise, and that's an improvement from the previous year. Panayiotou, Rohde and Henri van Breda have all been tried in the Western Cape High Court.

 

[JudgeJudi]

After lunch

 

[JudgeJudi]

Judge Steyn starts off after lunch by saying she sees things others don't see. "While the witness is testifying, please do not try and relate to him in any way." She appeared to look towards his sister and daughter but it's not clear who she's talking about.

RP repeats woman at police station said he must wait 24hrs to report his wife missing. "As far as she was concerned it was the end of the conversation. I didn't feel I was getting adequate support from her. That's why I asked to speak to someone else."

When RP spoke to another police officer, he admitted they had marital problems but did not want to go into detail as the priority was finding his wife. He was told to go to Diep River to get a reference number.

RP: I just wanted to make sure that Gill got registered as a missing person. I remember being told I was in the wrong police station and needed to complete form at Diep River.

Team News24 (@TeamNews24) | Twitter