good afternoon

please could you advise on a youngster working for me age 19 , case still on the go and have upped it to attempted muder from attempted theft and assault. at age 16 yrs he was sent to NARCO for fighting at school. Does the SAPS keep this on file and this could be evidence brought against him or been a juvenile , they dont keep records ?

thanking you

Jonathan W

Hi there and thank you for your question,

I am a practicing attorney based in South Africa and I will assist you with your question. Please feel free to ask as many follow up questions in order to clarify your question. If you have a new question, you must please open a new thread.

The SAPS will only keep on record previous convictions, so if he was charged with fighting at school when he was 16 and convicted of assault or something like that, then yes, it will be on the SAPS previous convictions system.

If he was just sent by his parents or something to NARCO for fighting at school then no, it won't be on the SAPS system. 

That however does not mean that you (really the prosecutor) can't use this information during the sentencing stage of the trial to show the court that he has previously acted with aggression.

Because it is a criminal case, the prosecutor should be able to provide you with a lot more information, but remember, you are only a witness in the criminal proceedings. You do not "run" the criminal trial, the prosecutor runs it and decides what he is going to do. 

If there is a part of the answer which you need more advice on, or clarity please continue in this same thread instead of opening a new question.

Att. Patrick

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