Pupil held for plotting murder
2009-09-29 08:20
Johannesburg - A pupil from a top KwaZulu-Natal private school was arrested on her 18th birthday in Johannesburg, for allegedly trying to pay a hitman to murder her ex-boyfriend's mother.
Apparently she was convinced that the 45-year-old mother was to blame for her relationship with a 24-year-old student teacher ending in April.
The man and his family had already applied for an order of protection against her.
Brittany Leigh Mitchell, a pupil at St Anne's Diocesan College in Hilton outside Pietermaritzburg, was arrested last Wednesday at Sandton City, and is now facing a charge of conspiracy to commit murder in Randfontein.
R2 000 and photo
A reliable source informed Beeld that Superintendent Gert Kruger of the Randfontein detective branch arrested Mitchell after she allegedly handed him R2 000 for the contract killing, as well as a photo of the 45-year-old woman.
She evidently did not know Kruger was a member of the police.
The woman believed to be the target of the murder plot, is presumed to be from Melville in Johannesburg.
The girl had allegedly sent an SMS to a Randfontein man, asking him to put her in touch with a hitman.
A police source said they received information about the alleged murder plans from an informant just a few days before the meeting at Sandton City. Kruger then pretended to be a link to the contract killer and established cellphone contact with Mitchell.
Shortly before her arrest, the girl and members of her family had travelled from KwaZulu-Natal to Johannesburg. Her mother and grandmother were busy shopping in the mall when she was arrested, and were reported to be extremely shocked by the arrest.
Suicidal tendencies
After spending the rest of her birthday and two further nights in prison, she appeared briefly in the Randfontein Magistrate's Court on Friday. She was released on bail of R2 000 on the same day, as she suffers from depression and displayed suicidal tendencies. She was released to the custody of her father and placed under house arrest.
Mitchell was initially to have appeared in the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court on Friday to oppose an application for a protection order against her by her ex-boyfriend and his family, but this was abandoned after her arrest.
Mitchell met the 24-year-old man on the social network Facebook in August last year.
When approached for comment by The Witness, St Anne’s headmaster David Wilkinson said, “There is a girl called Brittany Mitchell who is in matric at St Anne’s. This is the first time that I have heard of this matter.”
Mitchell will appear in court again on December 1.