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Dad gets life for hit on wife
07/12/2006 22:58 - (SA)
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| Collin Spittal, who has been found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment for paying three men to murder his wife. (Alan Murdoch, Beeld) |
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Katrien Smit, Beeld
Johannesburg - Collin Spittal hired three men in 2001 to kill Shirley, his estranged wife. They stabbed her 21 times with a kitchen knife. On Thursday, he was jailed for life.
He was also sentenced to five years in prison for theft, the two sentences to run concurrently.
The three men stabbed Shirley to death in her home in Weltevreden Park on the West Rand in 2001.
Spittal and his wife were going through a divorce and their three children were spending the day with his mother-in-law.
Judge Thokozile Masipa found earlier this year that Spittal was the mastermind behind the murder, because he had had items removed from the house beforehand to make it look like a break-in.
This was why Spittal also was found guilty of theft.
Judge Masipa said the murder was well planned and had been executed in a most-gruesome manner.
"When the blade of the knife they were using broke off, one of the attackers fetched another knife from the drawer, to finish her off.
Children also victims
"The worst was that she was killed in her home, the place she was supposes to be safe," said the judge.
She said Spittal's action in having his wife killed had had far-reaching effects on the lives of many people around him.
The judge said that those who had suffered the most were Spittal's wife and the three young children.
"First, their mother was murdered.
"Now, they have to live with the knowledge that it was their father who murdered her."
Judge Masipa said the fact that Spittal paid to have his wife killed, made the murder even more gruesome.
She did not consider his heart problem as enough reason to impose a sentence of less than life imprisonment.
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