Bomb sparks new love

2003-03-17 23:05

Vera Schoeman

Port Elizabeth - The businessman, suspected of throwing a petrol bomb into a house where his former wife and her parents were sleeping, got engaged to his ex-wife in hospital on Monday.

"It was a deeply spiritual and emotional experience to commit to my love again. I love her so much that I would never do her any harm," Leon Woest, owner of a furniture factory in Port Elizabeth, said after the ceremony.

His former wife, Desiree, is recuperating in hospital after someone threw a petrol bomb through a window of her parental home in Kensington in February. Her stepfather, Jannie Jacobs, died in the subsequent fire. Her mother escaped by jumping over a fence.

Mrs Woest was seriously injured in the blaze and was admitted to Dora Nginza Hospital. Woest, who was arrested as a suspect shortly after the attack, arranged for her to be transferred to the provincial hospital.

He is not being charged with arson, due to a lack of evidence, but has charges of intimidation and crimen injuria pending against him.

Woest and his wife reconciled while she was in hospital and decided to get married again. He said he hoped that the "monster" who threw the petrol bomb through the window would be arrested soon.

"But it was the turning point that brought new passion between us. We will never again try to live without each other," he said.

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