The mother of a 40-year-old Westlake man wants the man accused of his murder to have his R1000 bail withdrawn when he appears in court next month.
Westlake residents have started a petition calling for the accused’s bail to be scrapped when he appears in the Wynberg Magistrate’s Court on Thursday April 11.
Roger Cochrane, the father of two girls aged 2 and 16, died of blunt-force trauma to the head, say police.
According to Matilda Cochrane, her son left their home in Westlake at 11.40pm Sunday January 28 to sell a vintage bicycle to the accused’s father in a nearby street. At 11.50pm, she was called by a neighbour to help her son.
“I found Roger on the ground next to the accused’s bungalow. The accused was giving him CPR, hitting his chest with his fists and going on like a mad person that said to me he was on drugs. I felt his neck, to check his pulse, but there was nothing. I did nursing before; I knew he was dead. I just wanted a second opinion to make sure he had passed on and not in a deep coma.”
A neighbour had taken her and the accused, along with her son in the back seat, to Victoria Hospital. Mr Cochrane was pronounced dead on arrival.
Ms Cochrane said the accused had lied to a police officer at the hospital about what had happened, telling him in front of her that he had punched her son in the stomach and that Mr Cochrane had then stepped back and fallen on his head.
“He was so convincing the officer asked, ‘What will you tell the magistrate?’ He said, ‘I will tell the truth because that’s how it happened.’”
Ms Cochrane said the investigating officer had failed to tell her when the accused would appear for his initial bail hearing.
“The murder happened on Sunday night; he appeared the next Wednesday, and he came out on a R1000 bail.
“I want bail to be withdrawn because he shows no remorse. He lied to my face, he lied to the police officer in his statement. It just shows he doesn’t feel sorry for what he did to my child.”
Muneebah Ganief, a Westlake street committee chairperson, said she had known Mr Cochrane for 20 years and while he might have used drugs, he was a “very quiet and respectful person”.
Ms Ganief said: “The detective did not come back to the mother about when the bail application would be. They phoned her the morning of the bail hearing to be in court when she had to be in the mortuary to go and view her son’s body.
“In the afternoon, we saw him here in Westlake, and he was bragging he is out on a R1000 bail. After that, I gathered residents together, and we marched to the crime scene, and then the house owner said he is not there. He left with his parents, and then I decided, no, I am going to start driving a petition. I am trying to get 500 signatures.”
Kirstenhof visible policing commander Captain Loyiso Shumane confirmed the accused was facing a murder charge. The investigating officer had recommended that bail be set at R5000, but the Wynberg Magistrate’s Court had reduced it to R1000, he said.