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Judge condemns wife killer
24/10/2006 07:29 - (SA)
Llewellyn Prince, Die Burger
Cape Town - It wasn't Dawid Abrahams's "main aim" to kill his 30-year-old wife, Fransiena Abrahams in May 2004.
Sentencing Abrahams to an effective 13 years in prison, Judge Wilfred Thring said Abrahams had erased a fellow human being's life.
Abrahams lost his temper and hit his wife with a spade and a stick full of nails before burning her body along with rubbish in the backyard of their Blackheath home.
Abrahams alleged he had been furious because his wife had used the money set aside to buy food to buy liquor and she also took about R900 from his pants while he was sleeping.
She also used some of that money to buy liquor.
Killed in her own house
The judge said Fransiena had been killed in her own house where she should have been safe.
"The attack took place in the presence of your two young children (a nine-year-old boy and a nine-month-old baby girl).
"Your two children must grow up without a mother because of what you did. Luckily for them they have an aunt who is looking after them and you should be thankful."
"The court didn't get the impression that you were overly concerned about your children, but the fact remains that no-one could take a mother's place."
Thring said the weapons used exacerbated the attack.
"A spade wasn't normally used to hit or chastise someone, but to dig a hole."
"It was also unnecessary to use a stick with nails to show your anger."
The judge said the attack took longer than an hour, and "perhaps even two hours" and only Abrahams knew how many times he'd hit his wife.
"You were reckless and wanted to hurt her badly and you didn't care if she died."
"Your son saw some blood on her at one stage and you should've seen it yourself, but even that didn't stop you."
Thring said Abrahams worked out a complicated plan to cover the murder.
He made a fire to destroy the body without leaving a trace.
"If the truth wasn't uncovered, you would've continued living without a problem."
"You managed for 12 days to hoodwink everyone (he told his son and the neighbours that his wife went to visit family)."
Thring said Abrahams would "carry the heavy burden of taking the life of the mother of his children the rest of his life.
"If the court had found you had it in mind to murder her, the sentence would have been much heavier."
Thring said Abrahams had been an awaiting-trial prisoner the past two years.
"That was already a heavy sentence."
Abrahams was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment of which two years were suspended for five years.
- Die Burger
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