Peter Beale murder case: Defence wants State's first witness' evidence to be 'completely rejected'

JOHANNESBURG - Legal counsel for murder-accused peadiatrician Peter Beale has come out guns blazing for the State’s first witness in the murder trial, calling for his evidence to be “completely rejected”.

Beale is currently on trial at the Johannesburg High Court, facing three counts of murder and two of fraud.

He’s accused of reckless conduct, resulting in the deaths of three children he operated on.

It’s alleged he undertook surgeries when they were not necessary to try and recoup money he lost to a ponzi scheme.

ALSO READ: Beale's treatment of boy (3) who later died, was in line with standard practice, court told

Beale’s counsel, Ian Green, grilled the current witness - who’s also a paediatric surgeon - on why in his findings on the death of a three-year-old child Beale operated on, he “ignored” questions raised at the time around the possibility that he’d aspirated after being given too much liquid after his surgery, resulting in the infection he later died from.

The witness stood his ground, saying he relied on the postmortem and that the simplest answer - that being that the infection was a result of the surgery - was most likely the correct one.

However, Green described his evidence as “unhelpful and incomplete” - and said he would argue the witness’s evidence should be “completely rejected”.

Proceedings have now wrapped up for the day and will resume on Thursday, with the same witness still on the stand.