Pretoria - It was a case of a drunken prank gone horribly wrong for two teens when one of them shot a paintball at a police station in Marble Hall, apparently hitting a policeman in the chest.
They were arrested and detained on an array of charges, including attempted murder and high treason.
Daniel de Klerk, who was 18 at the time, claimed R800 000 damages from the police.
He said he had been severely assaulted while in custody and that he had been denied medical assistance.
A 17-year-old family member arrested with him claimed R300 000 for unlawful arrest. This teen, who was merely a passenger in the car when De Klerk fired the paintball, cannot be identified as he was under 18 at the time.
The high court in Pretoria heard that at about midnight on January 25, 2008, De Klerk drove past the police station with the other boy next to him when he fired several shots with his paintball gun at the police station before speeding off.
He took his family member home, but on his way to his house he was stopped by two members of the police, who arrested him. He was taken to the police station, where he was charged with high treason, assault, the pointing of a firearm and malicious damage to property.
The assault charge was later changed to attempted murder after one of the officers claimed he was hit by a paintball.
In the early hours of the morning the other boy’s father was told to take his son to the police station where he was arrested and detained for about eight hours.
All the charges bar the malicious damage to property were eventually withdrawn against De Klerk. He had to undergo a series of rehabilitative programmes after which that charge was also dropped.
The other boy was cleared of all charges.
De Klerk testified that he and the other teenager were at a party on the night of the incident. On the way back he told the younger boy that he wanted to show him something.
He took his number plates off the car and switched off the lights. He then drove past the police station and De Klerk pelted it with his paintball gun through the open car window, before dropping off the other boy off at his home.
