A shambles: the Sarah Groves' murder trial latest

Tuesday 06 February 2018

The 110th scheduled hearing in the Sarah Groves' trial never opened yesterday, as the judge did not attend.

Vic Groves, Sarah's father, reported that those who attended the court were "met with a sea of confusion".

The courtroom was not open, and the judge's whereabouts was also unknown, with some saying he was on holiday, some that he had attended a course at short notice, and others saying he was sick.

"The one person who should have known what was happening – the Public Prosecutor – was initially unable to help in any way," Mr Groves said.

"At one stage it appeared that the hearing would take place in an adjacent court under a temporary stand-in judge.  The accused, Richard de Wit had been brought to the building, but as so often has been the case before, no witnesses turned up."

Plans for the hearing would have seen cross examination of Sl Kuldeep Koul, one of the summoned witnesses, completed. However the Public Prosecutor, when later challenged about the trial, confirmed that he had received a phone call from the witness the day before saying he would be absent.

"There are clearly many issues here that would simply not be a feature of any other jurisdiction," Mr Groves said, questioning why the judge was not present, why the accused was, why no other witnesses had been summoned and why the entire trial was "constantly and consistently treated with total disdain and lack of respect".

There are still approximately 15 witnesses to be heard.

Miss Groves died in April 2013 after being stabbed multiple times on a houseboat in Kashmir.