Investigating officer refutes Tiffany Meek's claims in affidavit

Investigating officer, Sergeant Linda Duma on Tuesday refuted several claims made in murder-accused mom Tiffany Meek's affidavit. 

Meek returned to the Roodepoort Magistrate’s Court for the continuation of her bail application.

Duma was called back to the witness box as the State opposed bail for the mother accused of the murder of her 11-year-old son, Jayden-Lee Meek.

Duma was taken through Meek’s affidavit which was read to the court during her appearance on Friday.

He highlighted the fact that Meek did not disclose to the court that she had returned to her apartment in the Swazi Place complex at about 4am and left just after 5.30am on July 14, shortly before Jayden-Lee’s body was discovered by residents.

Meek also claimed photos were not taken of her son’s school bag on May 14, however, Duma stated the photo clearly showed it was. 

Meek claimed that ‘sniffer dogs’ reacted to the security flat but police refused to search it citing they had no search warrant. 

“As far as I know the security guards never occupied a flat at Swazi Place,” he said. 

Meek claimed the issue of the school bag only rose on May 16, when police claimed to retrieve it. 

“The reason I went there that day (May 16) was because I took the initiative as the investigating officer seeing as the photographer took a photo of the bag but it was not taken. It was left there. I went there and called the photographer. Inside the bag were a lunch box, books and I took out a book. That is where I saw the work of the day when the child went missing (May 14). When the bag was removed, the photographer filmed this and the bag was sealed in an evidence bag,” he told the court. 

Claims of police trying to frame Meek were also rubbished. 

“The investigation was being done as it should be done. I do not agree with the framing part. Why would we frame?” he asked. 

He further claimed he did not see blood on underwear and bed sheets as stated in Meek’s affidavit. Instead, he stated there was a towel that had traces of blood on it, but, this was never taken. 

When asked why, he said because it never crossed his mind. 

Meek also previously stated she was confident that if she was guilty and not being framed, she would have been arrested immediately and not nearly two months later. 

“This is not correct. We don’t arrest to investigate. We had to investigate and gather before we could say we have a case against the applicant (Meek). The blood found also had to be analysed and this is not done overnight. The post-mortem could not be given immediately. We couldn’t just arrest before knowing the cause of death,” he said. 

Previously, Duma said the cause of Jayden-Lee’s death was blunt force head injuries. 

He further revealed injuries listed in the post-mortem report: “Deep skull hemorrhaging with cerebral swelling with a linear abrasion above the lateral right eyebrow, a linear abrasion lateral to the right lower lip, green and blue bruise above the posterior right elbow. There is also no visible defensive injuries.” 

The matter continues.

Cape Times