The Apartheid Killer: 5. The trial

World Of Secrets

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary

4.7 • 765 Ratings

🗓️ 19 August 2024

⏱️ 38 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The reckoning of Louis van Schoor. Can justice be done or would he be cleared of the killings? This is the inside story of what was one of South Africa’s biggest criminal trials – van Schoor faces multiple charges of murder. We hear the original audio tapes from the courtroom. The police said that he was justified in using maximum force.

Since this episode was recorded, it has been announced that Louis van Schoor died, on 25 July 2024. There will be more about this in the final episode. This was a four-year investigation and the interviews with Louis van Schoor were recorded in 2022 and 2023.

Please note, this episode of World of Secrets includes descriptions of violence, which some listeners may find distressing.

Season 3 of World of Secrets is a collaboration with the BBC World Service investigations unit, Africa Eye. Here’s a link to the BBC Africa Eye film, which we recommend you watch after listening to this podcast: https://youtu.be/QPB42_uLLh0 If you are in the UK, you can watch on BBC iPlayer: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0021dvm

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Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Rory Stewart and I want to talk about ignorance. I will die without having read
0:08.2	everything that was written in classical Latin. Because ignorance isn't simply the opposite of knowledge.
0:14.7	It's part of what it means to be human.
0:17.5	Just about every game I can think of involves ignorance.
0:22.1	There's no adventure without ignorance. There's no there's no narrative.
0:25.0	The long history of ignorance from Confucius to Kianan
0:29.0	with me Rory Stewart,
0:31.0	listen on BBC Sounds.
0:33.6	Before we start, this episode of World of Secrets
0:36.5	includes descriptions of violence,
0:38.6	which some listeners may find distressing. into stressing. It's 1991.
0:45.0	Following his disastrous inquest, Louvenskor has quit being a security guard. He's bought a dairy farm, a short drive from East London,
0:57.0	and is trying to build a completely different kind of life.
1:01.0	It's lush and green, at dawn the birds perform a beautiful morning chorus.
1:09.4	This is something he's wanted for years, a small plot to live off the land with his family. But that peace is
1:16.6	about to be shattered. Early one morning, while tending to his cows, he hears a commotion outside.
1:27.0	Four o'clock the morning I was busy milking and I noticed for cars coming up the driveway and this guy walked up to me the head of murder and robbery squad and the guy came up to me and said I'm
1:47.6	Colonel so and so I'm here to arrest you on charges of murder and attempted murder and
1:57.0	that I said okay and they took me away and he said to me what you're going to do so I'm not guilty.
2:08.0	The most feared killer in East London insists he's not guilty, but he's arrested and taken away in a police car.
2:21.0	That day he's charged with 43 counts, 19 of murder, 21 of attempted
2:28.8	murder and three of assault. Full school's opponents have gotten him off the streets, but they're not done with him yet.
	...

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