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Nicolette Lotter walks into the visitor’s room at Westville Prison’s women’s section, sits down at the partition of reinforced glass and greets me through the speaker. Her voice is soft and she looks tiny.
It’s hard to believe this slight woman is on trial for murder. She and her brother, Hardus, stand accused of killing their parents, Johan and Maria Lotter, in a violent spree in their home in Westville, near Durban, on 19 July 2008.
Lotter (29) doesn’t deny it but claims she and her brother (23) were under the spell of Mathew Naidoo, the third accused, and committed the crimes because they thought he was the third son of God.
She’s made peace with the fact that prison will probably be her home for decades. For her, redemption begins with accepting punishment for her role in the murders and she hopes people will be able to forgive her.
YOU’s Sulaiman Philip spoke to Lotter in the run-up to the resumption of the trial that has gripped the country since it began in the high court in Durban in October last year.
Read more in YOU 15 March 2012.
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