Victim's father speaks out against alleged killer paediatric surgeon Peter Beale
Beale is accused of murdering three children he operated on with the state alleging that he undertook unnecessary surgeries in order to recover money he had lost in a failed investment.
Murder-accused paediatric surgeon Peter Beale appeared in the Johannesburg High Court on 29 January 2024. Picture: Katlego Jiyane/Eyewitness News
JOHANNESBURG - The father of one of the children paediatric surgeon Peter Beale is accused of murdering said he was led to believe he had no option but to send his son for what turned out to be a fatal surgery and for a condition the child didn't have.
READ: State calls fourth witness in Peter Beale trial
Beale is accused of the murder of three children he operated on with the state alleging that he undertook unnecessary surgeries in order to recover money he had lost in a failed investment. His alleged reckless conduct resulted in their subsequent deaths.
He is also charged with fraud.
His trial is currently underway in the High Court in Johannesburg.
The court previously ordered that none of the children involved or their families could be identified but it has now waived its ruling for this child and his family, with the consent of his father, Mohammadh Sayed who was called to the stand on Friday.
Beale is accused of misrepresenting to Sayed and his ex-wife that their 10-year-old, Zayaan, had a condition called intestinal metaplasia even though a biopsy had in fact shown he didn’t and required surgery following which he died.
An emotional Sayed on Friday told the court that when he spoke to Beale ahead of the surgery, the surgeon was insistent that without it his son would ultimately develop cancer and die.
He said against this backdrop, they felt they had no option but that if they had seen the biopsy results which explicitly stated that the child did not have intestinal metaplasia beforehand, there is “no way” they would have sent him into theatre.
Proceedings will resume on Monday.