Leila Samodien
Justice Writer
A TEENAGER accused of murdering his girlfriend’s Clovelly mother could end up waiting months for mental observation at Valkenberg Hospital.
The waiting period for observation is nine months or longer, according to the provincial Health Department.
Kyle Maspero, 19, faces charges of murder and attempting to defeat the course of justice relating to the killing of stilt walker Rosemary Theron in March last year.
Prosecutor Susan Galloway told the Western Cape High Court yesterday that Maspero had not yet been admitted and was on the waiting list.
In an e-mail in response to questions, department spokesman Mark van der Heever said that of the hospital’s 360 beds, 125 were for forensic cases. Of these, 20 were for people referred by courts for observation.
“The bed occupancy for forensics was 127.4 percent for the last financial year,” the response read.
“More patients are admitted as forensic patients than discharged, which contributes to the high bed occupancy.
“Mr Maspero is number 130 on the waiting list that was 158 long at the end of June 2014. The waiting period for the observation is nine months or longer.”
Bed availability also affected the number of observation patients that could be accommodated.
Proposals for the hospital’s “revitalisation” would increase the number of beds to 432.
“The first construction stage will be completed by September 2014 and final construction is aimed to be complete by mid-2016.”
Fifteen beds were available in the maximum secure unit for observations.
However, fewer observations than this were done each month because of the number of state patients in the system and the lack of suitable placements for them.
Maspero, who is out on bail, cut a lonely figure in court yesterday. The State has provisionally withdrawn charges against his co-accused, Godfrey Scheepers, 20.
Theron’s daughter, Phoenix Racing Cloud Theron, 19, reached a plea bargain agreement with the State in early May.
She was sentenced to serve 15 years in jail for her part in the murder of her mother and for misleading the police.
In her plea and sentence agreement, she implicated Maspero, with whom she had been in a relationship. She said she had “held the deceased’s arms while Maspero came around the back of the deceased, put the rope around her neck and strangled her”.
Maspero’s case was postponed to August 8.