KEY POINTS
- Van Rhyn says he never saw Joshlin on the day she vanished.
- He claims police tortured him and threatened to kill him.
- His plea explanation was read in court by his lawyer.
Even though he maintains he never saw the child on the day she vanished, Steveno van Rhyn, one of the defendants in the Joshlin Smith case, says he was tortured and almost killed by police while being questioned.
Van Rhyn denies seeing Joshlin on the day she vanished
At the Western Cape High Court, which is seated in the White City Multipurpose Centre in Saldanha, his lawyer, Nobahle Mkabayi, read his plea explanation into evidence on Wednesday.
Van Rhyn entered a not guilty plea to accusations of kidnapping and human trafficking, as did Kelly Smith and Jacquen “Boeta” Appollis.
On his route to a used appliance store on February 19, 2024, van Rhyn claimed to have made a stop at Appollis’ house. He begged Laurentia “Renz” Lombaard, a former defendant in the case, and Appollis to make him some narcotics when he discovered them at the residence, but they didn’t have any.
He then made another visit to Appollis’ house after getting back from the dealer. Lombaard gave him a pipe this time, and Appollis added mandrax.
“I heard Kelly calling Joshlin an hour later, but she didn’t answer. He recalled that Renz had called Joshlin earlier to see how her baby was doing. I told her that.
According to Iol, he asserted that Lombaard never came back and that he never saw Joshlin that day.
Van Rhyn claims police tortured him during interrogation
Van Rhyn claimed that on March 4, 2024, he accepted a ride in a white double-cab bakkie with his cousin’s boyfriend as he was hitchhiking from Vredenburg to Saldanha.
In a panic, I questioned why I was unable to escape. “I recognized that the people inside were armed police officers,” he remarked.
He claimed that another bakkie followed them as they drove him to Jacobs Bay Beach. He was assaulted, placed in handcuffs, and told to lie face down in the car.
He said, “They threatened to kill me—either by burning me in the sand or throwing me into the ocean,” and “they pinched my testicles and shoved a gun in my mouth.”
According to Van Rhyn, a bystander alerted the officers to their trespassing, which stopped the attack.
After that, he was brought to the Sea Board’s headquarters, where he claimed the torture went on.
I was unable to breathe. I felt like I was going to die from the anguish. This was said more than once. To get me to swing, they gave my forehead a little shove.
