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Murdered boy's dad 'very bitter'
05/12/2006 10:03 - (SA)
Elise Tempelhoff, Beeld
Johannesburg - He would have been able to accept the death of his son, Jandré, if he had been present in court on Monday, to hear his ex-wife and her former lover being sentenced to 49 years in prison for the murder of the child.
Jan Botha from Marble Hall was not present when Hanlie Botha, 33, and Thea de Nysschen, 34, were jailed for the murder of the four-year-old toddler in June 2003.
Botha said he had only the highest respect for magistrate Retha Willemse, her assessors and the prosecutors in the case as their handling of the case was "excellent" but regretted that the killers had not been given life sentences.
"They tortured my child to death over many months, that is why they should sit in jail for the rest of their lives."
Botha said that on Monday, he had been 20 minutes from the court when he received a call saying that sentencing had taken place.
He sped from Marble Hall after he heard that Willemse was going to proceed with sentencing that day and not the next, when he had thought it would happen.
He now feared the women would come up for early parole.
Botha said he was "very bitter" as he had tried for over a year, to no avail, to get custody of his son.
He divorced the boy's mother when Jandré was about a year old, amongst others, because he discovered his wife was a lesbian. He was not prepared to remain married to her.
Botha and De Nysschen then started a relationship.
He commented on a report in Rapport on Sunday, in which his former mother-in-law, Charmaine Naudé, said that he never really showed interest in Jandré and said it was regrettable that she spoke such nonsense.
- Beeld
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