‘Christmas came early, Kinnear is dead.’

“Christmas came early, Kinnear is dead.”

This was the chilling voicenote allegedly shared by the manskappe of alleged underworld kingpin Nafiz Modack on the day Lieutenant-Colonel Charl Kinnear was killed.

This was revealed at the Western Cape High Court this week as the man accused of pinging the popular detective’s phone took the witness stand.

Former rugby player and debt collector, Zane Kilian, stunned the court this week when he told Judge Robert Henney as he openly admitted to pinging Kinnear, but says on the day of the murder he had not pinged Kinnear’s phone.

Kinnear was shot and killed on 18 September as he arrived at his Bishop Lavis home. The State contends that Kilian used the LAD pinging platform to actively trace the whereabouts of Kinnear in the months leading up to his death.

Kilian told the court that on the day of the murder, he did not ping Kinnear and allegedly learnt of his death when his ex-wife received a voicenote from her bestie.

He explained the best friend obtained the voicenote from her berk, Renier van der Vyfer, who was also Modack’s driver, saying“ ”Christmas came early, Kinnear is dead“.

Kilian told the court that several hours after the murder, he received a call from Modack’s alleged middleman and co-accused, Ziyaad Poole, who he alleges informed him he was on his way to Kilian’s home to collect his cellphones.

He said he went into a panic and was bang armed men would rock up at his home in Springs and admits to deleting various cellphone applications and hiding his phones in a kassie.

The trial continues on Monday.