Tiffany Meek at her bail hearing in the Roodepoort Magistrates' Court on 21 July. (Photo: Fani Mahuntsi / Gallo Images) 
The defence team representing Tiffany Meek, charged with the murder of her 11-year-old son, Jayden-Lee Meek, has claimed that she is the victim of a deliberate frame-up by the state.
Jayden-Lee went missing on 13 May and was found dead the next day in the stairwell of his mother’s flat, Swazi’s Place in Fleurhof, Johannesburg. Tiffany Meek (31) was working from home that day.
In a sworn statement, Meek said that when her son did not return from school on 13 May at the normal time of 3pm, she asked her mother, Debbie Dunn, to contact the scholar transport driver and ask where he was.
The scholar transport driver and a schoolmate of Jayden-Lee confirmed that he had been dropped off as usual, and Meek reported his disappearance at the Florida police station at about 7.30pm.
The investigating officer, Sergeant Nceba Diko, testified in the Roodepoort Magistrates’ Court that Meek told police that Jayden-Lee had not returned from school on 13 May, but the security guard at Meek’s residence said he had returned from school that day, and had opened the remote-controlled gate and entered the flat.
“The security guard said there was no missing child report to the security office,” said Diko.
Meek has been charged with Jayden-Lee’s murder, crimen injuria, attempting to defeat or obstruct the course of justice and defeating the administration of justice.
She was arrested for the murder about two months after Jayden-Lee’s body was found.
“I fail to understand how I could be charged with the murder of my son when I was the person fighting for answers from the police, and doing everything possible to ensure that my child’s killers were found,” said Meek.
“I am going to leave no stone unturned to fight the charges and to indicate that the allegations are inaccurate and cannot be true. I believe that the course of justice will prevail.”
Read more: Tiffany Meek urged police to find her son's killer, but became their prime suspect
Responding to claims by Meek’s lawyer, Noven Naidoo, that Meek was being framed, Diko said: “I see no reason why we should frame someone.”
Contradictions
Foremost among the contradictions that played out in court in the last few days during Meek’s bail application was her claim that on the morning that Jayden-Lee’s body was found, she returned to the Florida police station in a Bolt ride-hailing car.
However, a security guard at Swazi’s Complex told police that he did not see a Bolt car pick up Meek.
In her statement, Meek also said she had not returned to the flat on the morning that her son’s body was found, but a security officer told police that Meek returned to the house about two hours before her son’s body was discovered, and was dropped off by an unknown vehicle.
Blood and bruises
Diko said Jayden-Lee died from blunt-force trauma, and his injuries included a gash across his forehead, a wound in his chin, bruises on his neck, arms and right leg, and traces of blood on his lip.
Meek claimed, “There was also a so-called private investigator who was trying to make me out to be an abusive mother, and publicly announced that Jayden’s school had complained about a history of abuse. I have never abused my child.”
The bail hearing was postponed to Friday, 25 July. DM