Waterkloof 4 face life sentence

2005-06-14 12:53

Pretoria - Four Waterkloof youths face a minimum life sentence after being convicted in the Pretoria Regional Court on Tuesday of killing a man and assaulting another in December 2001, when they were all 16.

Magistrate Len Kotze convicted Christoff Becker, 19, and Frikkie du Preez, Gert van Schalkwyk and Reinach Tiedt, all 18, of beating, kicking and stabbing an unidentified man in a park in Moreleta Park in the early morning hours of December 2 that year and leaving him for dead.

He found that a body later discovered in the park by police was the same man the four had assaulted. They were consequently found guilty of murder.

Kotze convicted Du Preez of assaulting another man in Constantia Park earlier that night and the other three of assaulting the same man with the intent to cause grievous bodily harm.

Kotze pointed out that the convictions carried a minimum life sentence, saying the matter would now be referred to the High Court to impose the penalty.

The four did not show much emotion in the dock as judgment was passed, and the court adjourned for the defence and prosecution to discuss bail conditions pending sentencing.

The four denied assaulting an unidentified man in Constantia Park in Pretoria in December 2001. They also denied beating another man to death later that night in a park in the nearby Moreleta Park suburb.

They admitted beating a man, whom they believed to be a burglar, after he attacked them as they tried to apprehend him.

But the body found in the park later was not that of the man they assaulted, the four claimed.

- SAPA