DAY -7 Zola Mdyogolo

The trial is due to start one week today, but until then we have rather limited information to go on.

We know that he was arrested within hours of my mother's death (I was standing in line to get on a plane at Heathrow when I had a text message from my sister saying he had been caught.) He was apprehended largely because of his very strange behaviour and some quick thinking of a Chintsa resident. He was spotted wading across the river (pictures on DAY-11) carrying a bundle of items on his head that turned out to be stolen from my parents neighbour's house. The police apprehended him when he waded ashore on the far bank.

What made his behaviour doubly strange is that that he appears to have burgled the neighbour's house after allegedly murdering my mother. None of his actions would suggest he was trying to keep a low profile.

When he was arrested he was wearing some of my mother's jewellery. He is alleged to have been drunk. Personally, I wonder whether drugs were involved as well.

DNA evidence has linked him to my mother. He made a statement to a magistrate soon after his arrest in which he confessed to rape and murder. He also faces a charge of aggravated theft.

Before all this happened he was already known as a troublemaker, but for relatively petty offences. He may turn out to have a criminal record, but I have not heard that he does. As an 18 year-old he has hardly had much time to get into really serious trouble. He is a local, his mother lives in Chintsa West, the general direction in which he was heading when he was arrested. My mother may have known who he was, I'm not sure.

As a Xhosa speaker, probably with limited education and little English, he may need a translator to understand the court proceedings.

He has been in custody since 15 October 2005 and appeared at a preliminary hearing in the magistrate's court at the end of February where the case was transferred to the High Court for trial.

That's all I know - I don't know what he looks like, I don't know how tall he is, how strong he is, or how I will feel when I do see him in court next week.