Court to consider appointing medical assessor for trial against surgeon Peter Beale

The Johannesburg high court has postponed the fraud and murder trial against paediatric surgeon Prof Peter Beale to Wednesday. 

This is to allow the court to possibly appoint a medical assessor who will sit with the judge during the proceedings. 

Beale, whose co-accused, anaesthetist Dr Abdulhay Munshi, was shot dead in September 2020, made a brief appearance in the Johannesburg high court on Monday.

The court heard it was in the interests of justice for the judge to consider sitting with an assessor.

Though no decision has been taken yet , the assessor, who could be a paediatric surgeon, would advise the judge on the medical aspects of the case during the trial.

Beale has been accused of three counts of murder and two counts of fraud.

TimesLIVE previously reported that despite the media having previously named the victims, the court ordered the names be withheld as requested by their families. 

According to the indictment, Beale is accused of “unlawfully and intentionally” causing the death of a three-year-old boy in March 2012, a 21-month-old girl in July 2016 and a 10-year-old boy in October 2019 after he had operated on the children. 

The fraud charges pertain to the pathology results he had given to the parents of the three-year-old boy and the 10-year-old boy in which, according to the indictment, he allegedly misrepresented facts with the intention to defraud.

In 2019, the Sunday Times reported families were blaming Beale for the children's deaths.

One Johannesburg family blamed Beale and claimed to the publication his actions and those of Munshi caused the agonising and traumatic death of their 10-year-old son.

TimesLIVE