Cape Town – The lawyer representing a Spanish national accused of killing his twins during a holiday in Cape Town has been denied access to the State’s docket.
Attorney William Booth, for Mario-César Deus Yela, said on Wednesday that the Wynberg Magistrate’s Court refused to let him see the complete docket as the investigation had still not been completed.
He had asked for access to it in order to adequately prepare witnesses for the trial. Instead, he was only given a brief summary of the evidence.
Yela, 49, is accused of killing his three-year-old twins, Maximo and Octavia, in a rented holiday home in Hout Bay on April 6.
The court previously heard that he sent a message to his ex-wife, Julia Engelhorn, asking her to come over for lunch. When she arrived, he allegedly told her he had killed the twins.
"She got up, went into the bedroom and discovered the twins. The third child was still at school. He had a knife in his possession. He then threatened to kill her," prosecutor Benito Adonis said at the time.
She apparently managed to escape and tried to alert a security guard at the estate.
Yela is expected back in court for a formal bail application on August 8.