'Where's the fear factor?'

2006-01-24 07:51

Christel Raubenheimer

Pretoria - "You're not scared of the smell of death. Where's the fear factor that'll make a child think 'I'm scared to do it because my dad will beat me to death?' "

Magistrate Victor Mabunda inveighed in this way in the Cullinan magistrate's court on Monday against two teenagers who had apparently cruelly murdered a girlfriend. He refused bail to Ricky Godfrey, 18, and Khabelo Mokwena, 18.

The two young men are standing trial for the murder of Samantha Uys of Meyers Park in Pretoria. She was murdered last year and her body was found soon afterwards at the Mamelodi quarrying works.

In his judgment on the bail application, Mabunda said if his son were involved in something like this, he'd have gone to court and told the child he would "see him in hell". He berated the suspected murderers' parents because they seemed to have had no control over their children.

He said society was falling apart because children were no longer punished for their transgressions. "Your mothers can't even say whether you were at home on the day of the murder. We're breeding a nest of vipers that will bite us. A child must be punished to learn what is right and wrong."

He also rejected the defence attorneys' argument that Godfrey was a minor at the time of the murder and should therefore be granted bail, because he was being detained among adults, and said the two accused were now men: "You showed this by killing someone.

"You (Godfrey) say you'll be sexually and physically assaulted in prison, because you're a white boy. I say let them do that to you.

"You're a sadist or a Satanist because no ordinary child would do something like this. At your age it would be natural for you to declare your love to a girl. You both felt she (Samantha) had to die. For no reason. What did you get out of it?" Mabunda asked.

Investigating officer Inspector Anton Helberg opposed the two accused's bail application because he said they could intimidate some of the witnesses.

In response, Mokwena's attorney wanted to know how an 18-year-old could intimidate anybody.

"If you can murder someone, your honour, you can certainly also intimidate someone," Helberg replied.

Mabunda cut the defence attorneys short when they claimed that the police officers were drinking after they'd initially arrested Godfrey and Mokwena and that one of the police officers had slapped Godfrey.

The magistrate also referred to other cases involving young criminals, such as the "Waterkloof four".

- Beeld