Paediatrician testifying in Peter Beale's murder trial accused of not having all the facts

JOHANNESBURG - Peter Beale’s legal team has accused a paediatrician testifying against the murder-accused surgeon of not having all the facts.

Beale’s trial continued in the Johannesburg High Court on Friday.

He’s charged with the murder of three children he had performed surgery on as well as with fraud, with the State alleging the surgeries weren’t even necessary.

Currently, a paediatrician who treated a three-year-old boy Beale had operated on after he subsequently went into distress, is on the stand.

She was called to assist the morning after the surgery.

But on Thursday, she was asked by the bench about the child’s condition prior to that and her evidence was that, from the hospital records, the child had started experiencing problems "way earlier".

Under cross-examination by Beale’s counsel, Ian Green, on Friday, she conceded that she hadn’t looked at or considered all the hospital records, only those that she believed were relevant.

Green’s now put it to her that she didn’t have at her disposal all the facts she needed to make the assertion and should have said as much in her response.

The case is now done for the day and will resume next week Tuesday, with the same witness still on the stand.