Monye complain of assault by prison warders

Former Olympic athlete Ambrose Monye has accused a group of prison warders of assaulting him in his cell on three occasions, the High Court in Pretoria heard on Monday.

His advocate Matthew Klein told the court Monye had laid complaints against the warders.

Monye is on trial with Andre Gouws on a charge of plotting to murder Chanelle Henning, the estranged wife of Gouws's friend Nico Henning.

Chanelle was shot dead near her child's creche early on the morning of November 8, 2011.

Henning's self-confessed killers, Gerhardus du Plessis and former policeman Willem (Pike) Pieterse, have testified that Monye and Gouws planned the murder and roped them in to do the dirty work.

Du Plessis, who admitted to pulling the trigger, and Pieterse are both serving 18-year prison terms following a plea bargain agreement with the State.

Minus his dreadlocks, Monye winced and wiped away tears that streamed from one of his eyes during his brief appearance in court on Monday.

Klein told the court it appeared that a specialised five-member team, known as the EST Team, had assaulted him on three occasions.

Klein said Monye's back and eye had been hurt, and that he had pain in his kidney.

Although he could barely see out of one of his eyes, the prison doctor had given him only eye drops and pain killers.

Klein asked that Monye be taken for X-rays to determine whether he had sustained more serious damage.

He said if the trial did not have to be postponed, he would have asked for a postponement because his client was in so much pain he could not follow proceedings.

Klein said Monye had laid an assault charge against the warders.

Acting Judge Johan Kruger said Monye would have to follow the procedure laid down by prison authorities concerning his medical treatment.

However, he asked that the procedure be speeded up.

Police guarding the two men inside the court relented when Gouws begged them to allow him to eat the food his mother Lenie and sister Adelaine Morris had brought to the court.

Gouws hugged and kissed his mother and sister before proceedings commenced and they also shook hands with Monye.

Kruger postponed the trial to May 6 because his assessor was "acutely ill" and could not proceed with the trial.

Monye and Gouws remain in custody.

Last year, a police cellphone analyst testified that Gouws had deleted from his cellphone all record of communication with Monye and Nico Henning.

However, Capt Francois Moller recovered the deleted call data and photographs.

These included images of the road signs near Henning's house and of the creche in front of which Chanelle was shot.

Moller also obtained CCTV footage which appeared to show Gouws's bakkie and motorcycle in the road outside Henning's complex on October 25 and 26, 2011, and again on November 4, four days before the murder.