Fraud and murder accused surgeon Peter Beale's trial postponed to Monday

The fraud and murder trial of paediatric surgeon Prof Peter Beale is to start on Monday as the court is still looking for assessors to assist in the trial.

Beale, dressed in a blue suit and tie, appeared briefly in the Johannesburg high court on Wednesday. The court considered appointing assessors in the medical field who would assist the judge during the proceedings. 

Judge Thifhelimbilu Mudau said: “I am confident that on Monday we should have a full team. We therefore agreed this matter stand down until Monday as I conclude the exercise.”

Mudau said the task wasn't easy as the assessors he needed had to be experts in the medical field.

Beale, whose co-accused, anaesthetist Dr Abdulhay Munshi, was shot dead in September 2020, is out on bail. 

He has been accused of three counts of murder and two of fraud. The court has ordered the names of the victims be withheld as requested by the families, despite media previously naming the victims. 

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 operated on the children.

TimesLIVE