Mother: It's too late

2008-10-06 20:10

Cape Town - The mother of two young children who were shot dead by their own father as they lay sleeping in bed, on Monday told the Cape High Court how the father blamed her.

An angry Charlotte van der Westhuizen turned to the weeping father in the dock and said loudly to him: "It doesn't matter how sorry you are about it now - it's too late."

The father, senior police officer, Marius van der Westhuizen, pleaded guilty to three counts of murder - the third count relating to his shooting of his daughter from a previous marriage on the same night.

However, because Van der Westhuizen claims diminished criminal responsibility caused by severe depression, Judge Willem Louw changed his plea to not guilty.

The mother, who herself was a police captain from Kuils River, told the court of her stormy marriage caused by Van der Westhuizen's possessiveness and his unreasonable attitude and demands concerning her duties on police management.

On the night of the shootings on June 28 2006, the mother had arrived home around 18:00 instead of her usual time of 16:30.

Knowing her husband's attitude about her having to work late, she had lied to him about her reason for being late.

Checked mileage of car

Instead of telling him the truth that she had had to do an evening foot patrol, she told him she had left milk at the station, gone back to get it and then got caught in traffic on her way home.

She told the court she was caught out when Van der Westhuizen checked the mileage of her car.

That night he told her she had a choice. It was either him or her work.

When she said it was not a matter of making a choice but that she had responsibility as a police captain, he took this to mean her choice was her work.

That night when she lay in bed, Van der Westhuizen removed his firearm from the cupboard in their bedroom in her presence and went to the two little girls' rooms.

He told his wife: "You made the choice, now you must take the consequences" then pointed his gun at the head of his sleeping daughter from a previous marriage and fired a shot.

Repeating his words to the mother, he then shot his other daughter, aged four, asleep in the same room.

Van der Westhuizen then went to second bedroom where he shot his eight year-old son as he lay asleep.

The case continues on Tuesday.

- SAPA