Billy Downer

Advocate William John "Billy" Downer, SC (born 20 November 1956 in Pretoria), is a deputy director of public prosecutions with the South African National Prosecuting Authority.

Billy Downer attended Pretoria Boys High School and then graduated in law at Stellenbosch University in 1979, and was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to study at Brasenose College, University of Oxford, where he obtained the BCL degree. He joined the South African Department of Justice (the forerunner of the National Prosecuting Authority) in October 1982. Since then he has had considerable experience in prosecuting corruption. One of his most well publicised cases was the State vs Shaik trial. His detailed investigations, which led to the discovery of a handwritten encrypted fax in French promising an amount of R500,000 per annum to 'JZ' until the first payment of ADS dividends, were key in securing the conviction of Schabir Shaik on two counts of corruption and one count of fraud.

External links


This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Thursday, August 14, 2014. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.