Child killer blames ex wife
2003-07-21 18:27
Rustenburg - A Rustenburg father who admitted that he had broken his two young children's necks before trying to commit suicide blamed his former wife for his deed, claiming that it would never have happened if she had not left him.
"The whole business is her fault, although I also carry blame because she felt I could not take care of them. If she had not left me the whole story would not have happened," Jannie Beukes, 37, told the High Court on Monday.
Beukes was earlier convicted on two charges of murder after admitting that he had in January 2000 strangled his son Boeta, 5, and daughter Marinda, 9.
According to an autopsy he had used so much violence that both children's necks were broken.
The prosecution described the murders of the two children as an "abhorrent crime" committed with the sole purpose of "spiting" his wife for leaving him.
'Bad mother'
Beukes denied this, saying that he had not wanted his children to grow up with his wife at the time, Helga - whom he described as a "bad mother" - and another man.
He admitted that he had been extremely angry with his wife and that his suicide note might create the impression of someone acting out of spite, but said his only thought at the time had been to remove himself and his children from the planet.
"I was angry, but I was also sad. It was not to punish her. At that moment you think of nothing else but to kill yourself," he said.
He claimed his wife, who worked in a bar, had moved in with another man after leaving him and that his children had told him she no longer wanted them to call him daddy after their divorce.
Cried most of the day
He had pleaded with his wife to come back to him the day before the murders, but she had refused. He said he had been in tears for most of the day and drank five different sorts of pills before going to bed that night.
On waking up, he had first fetched his son from the room where he was sleeping, took the sleeping boy to his own bed and then strangled him before returning for his daughter.
"I think I took my son first. He was still asleep when I strangled him. I think I did it with one hand. After that I fetched my nine-year-old daughter. She did not wake up. I also carried her. I think I strangled her with both hands," he said.
Beukes, who had tried to commit suicide by exploding a cracker in his mouth after strangling his children, said he was very sorry about what he had done.
"It's something that should never have happened. I'm very sorry about what happened, but I don't believe I would ever do such a thing again. I miss them terribly.
"I think I've been punished already by my time in jail and the knowledge that I've killed my children. It's very difficult to accept that I had done it, because my children were all that I lived for," Beukes said.
Although Beukes was in tears during his evidence in chief, he did not blink an eye when the prosecution asked him to describe exactly how he had killed his children. He admitted that he had been fully aware of what he was doing.
The court heard that Beukes, who was out on bail, presently lived with a widow and her two young children and enjoyed the support of his parents and former mother-in-law.
Kicked out
Helga denied that she had left him because of an affair with another man. She claimed Beukes had kicked her out of the house.
She was "very angry" with him and felt no amount of punishment would ever bring her children back.
Dr Irma Labuschagne, a criminologist, testified that something must have been wrong with Beukes to commit such an irrational deed. She said the murders and suicide attempt had been a "desperate and stupid way of getting rid of all of his problems."
She was of the opinion that long-term imprisonment would turn Beukes into someone who might be a danger to society and that a medium term sentence or even house arrest would be a better punishment for him as a person.
The trial continues.
- SAPA