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Girlfriend-killer gets 20 years
29/06/2007 19:08 - (SA)
Pretoria - A Nebo petrol attendant who locked his girlfriend in a room and set her alight, was sent to jail for 20 years for the murder on Friday.
"The murder was brazen, brutal and cruel. You killed someone you purported to love in the most brutal, cruel and callous manner," Pretoria High Court Judge Ronald Bosielo told Tini Richard Moshoro, 28, of Thabalebotha in Nebo.
He was convicted of having murdered his girlfriend Christina Quema Kabini in June 2003.
She had 80% second and third degree burn wounds in the attack and died in hospital eight days later.
Judge Bosielo rejected Moshoro's claim that he had "accidentally" poured petrol into the room after a struggle with another man about possession of a bucket full of petrol.
Begging for help
He however accepted the evidence of a school teacher, who said Moshoro had arrived at his friend's room earlier that day and asked for poison.
After he was sent away empty-handed, the teacher and his friend became suspicious and followed Moshoro to see what he was up to.
They found Kabini locked in Moshoro's room, begging for help. When Moshoro returned with a bucket full of petrol, they tried to reason with him. He ignored them, took the bucket and threw petrol through the open window of the room.
Judge Bosielo said although Moshoro had not taken the court into his confidence about the reasons for the murder, he accepted that human beings were susceptible to provocation, which led to anger and losing control.
In Moshoro's favour was the fact that he had a girlfriend and two young children to support, had recently been diagnosed with HIV, did not have the privilege of good schooling and had to find a job at a very young age to support two siblings.
It also counted in Moshoro's favour that he had at the age of 28 never before clashed with the law.
'Nurture public confidence'
Bosielo, however, said he regarded the murder in a very serious light, especially as Moshoro had killed the defenceless woman in a cruel and callous way.
"No human being has the right to determine the life of another, except the almighty God. That's why the legislature deemed it necessary to reconsider and abolish the death penalty, which gave human beings the right to take away the life of others.
"I do not intend to disappoint the public. I'm convinced I can only nurture public confidence in the criminal justice system by passing an appropriate, severe sentence," he added.
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