- Jeremy Sias was emotional in the witness box when he testified in his own defence on Thursday.
- He said he had made false statements to police when he pointed out where he had dumped Meghan Cremer.
- He was sad when he led police to where she was, denying that it was because he had murdered her.
When he pointed out to police where he had dumped Meghan Cremer, he had been sad, murder accused Jeremy Sias testified in his own defence in the Western Cape High Court on Thursday.
"Were you sad that you were caught out because you murdered her?" the prosecutor, Emily van Wyk, asked him in the witness box.
"No," he insisted, crying.
Proceedings were adjourned for a few minutes to allow Sias, who generally testified in a measured and unemotional manner, to collect himself after telling the court that his admissions to police during the pointing out had been for the camera recording proceedings.
This, he claimed, was because he had wanted the investigating officer, Sergeant Xolani Basso, to see the footage as he was promised that, for his cooperation, the matter would be heard in a lower court, where the sentence he would be handed would not be as severe as the one meted out in a higher forum.
He alleged that Basso had also committed to allowing him to be released on bail, so that he could get his affairs in order before he went to jail.
He now denies killing Cremer, claiming to have found her dead body in her car boot, after discovering the vehicle with the key in the ignition and taking it for a joyride.
After his arrest, Sias made admissions to police, admitting that he had "committed a murder".
When he led officers to the site where he had dumped her, footage showed him crying, with an officer who had been present saying he had said he hadn't meant to kill her.
"I wanted the camera to record me saying that," Sias said, explaining that he wanted to show that he was cooperating, so he could capitalise on the promises made to him.
Van Wyk called it a "theatre show" he had staged, asking why he hadn't moved closer to the camera, so that what he said was audible.
"If you wanted to put on a show, why didn't you cry into the camera?" Van Wyk asked.
"I can't say it was a show. I was very heartsore at that moment," Sias replied, saying it had upset him to see her body "lying there like that".
Sias had testified that he had dumped and hid her body in the Philippi farmlands and had covered her body with branches.
Van Wyk put it to him that if he hadn't led police there, her body would never have been found.
"I can't say that," he said, explaining that people were known to go there to collect and chop wood.
Earlier, the initial statement made by Sias, in which he is understood to have detailed his involvement in Cremer's murder, became a contentious issue, with the defence accusing the State of "cheap tactics" and "reprehensible" behaviour.
Advocate Bashier Sibda objected to Van Wyk asking Sias whether the statement he had given Basso before he was charged with the murder was the same as the version he was presenting to the court.
Sibda pointed out that this statement had not been handed in as evidence, saying Van Wyk's referring to its contents was underhanded.
Earlier in the trial, the court heard that Sias' partner, Jaydeen Azur, had been collected, upon his request, prior to him cooperating with the police.
"I wanted her to see how Basso was trying to pressure me to say I committed the murder," Sias said.
He later, in her presence, told Basso the details of what is said to have happened.
Basso had testified that what Sias had been telling him about the Cremer case had upset Azur so much she left the room.
Azur herself had testified that she had become angry at him when she heard what he had said.
The statement was not handed in as evidence as it was made to a non-commissioned officer.
Police members holding the rank of captain and higher are allowed to take down confessions and admissions in writing.
Basso, however, was a sergeant.
The trial continues.