Prison warden jailed for killing wife
2013-02-07 21:18
Cape Town - A prison warden who lured his estranged wife
to Pollsmoor Prison, promising to give her money, and then shot her dead, was
jailed for 10 years on Thursday.
Johan Dietricht appeared in the Western Cape High Court in
Cape Town before acting Judge Nape Dolamo, who said Dietricht had faced life
imprisonment for premeditated murder.
However, there were compelling and substantial
circumstances, including provocation, which permitted the court to impose a
less severe sentence.
Dietricht told the court he had been happily married for
years, until his deceased wife, Marilyn, started an affair with her employer.
He told the court: "She was a housewife, but then
started working, and then began cheating on me with her boss."
He said his wife often flirted with her employer in his
presence, and even went away for weekends with the employer.
On one occasion, he caught his wife in bed with him.
He left his home to stay with his sister.
On 21 August 2009, he took anti-depression medication,
and drank a full bottle of sherry, before telephoning his wife from the prison.
He asked her to come to the prison because he wanted to
give her money.
On her arrival, he met her in a guest room, and started
shooting wildly at her.
She tried to escape, but fell, and he then kicked her in
the face as she lay on the floor.
Dietricht, in the heat of the moment, then turned the gun
on himself in an attempted suicide, but the trigger jammed.
The court rejected Dietricht's defence of
non-pathological diminished responsibility.
The judge said he had sympathy for Dietricht, but that he
had to guard against being too lenient in the passing of sentence.
He added: "My sympathy for your circumstances has to
be balanced against the interests of the community and the gravity of the
offence."
The circumstances that permitted him to deviate from the
prescribed minimum sentence included the fact that Dietricht had been in
custody, awaiting trial, for nearly four years.
Others were that Dietricht had a clean record, suffered
from a stress disorder, and that there was no possibility he would repeat the
offence.
- SAPA
