|
  |
|
|
Teen-aged "Samurai" killer sentenced
By Tony Mcgregor
Sword-killer schoolboy Morne Harmse was yesterday, September 10 2009, in the Johannesburg High Court, given a sentence of 20 years in jail for the killing last year of another schoolboy. The killing happened in August last year when Harmse, then 18, went on a rampage at the Nic Diedericks Technical High School in Krugersdorp, west of Johannesburg, during school hours. In the vicious attacks, in which he used a samurai-type sword, Harmse killed 16-year-old Jacques Pretorius and wounded three others. The attacks sent shock waves through the conservative town and led to fears of satanism. The killer's fellow-students were in shock and the family of Pretorius is still struggling to come to terms with their loss. Adel Bekker, mother of Jacques Pretorius, told the court in earlier testimony that "We are broken. Totally fallen apart." She also told the court how her younger son, a Grade 5 student, was changed by the death of his older brother: "He is not the friendly child he was." Also wounded by Harmse were two employees of the school, Mr. Lesiba Samuel Manamela and Mr. Tsiamo Joseph Kodisang. They also gave evidence at the trial which ended with sentencing yesterday. The third person wounded in the attackes was a fellow-student Stephan Bouwer. Bouwer said of the attacks, while giving evidence, "We saw it but you don't click it is happening because you don't see someone getting hacked every day." He has a long scar down the side of his head and has lost the sense of feeling on that side of his head. He now wears his hair long to cover the scar. During the court proceedings evidence was led that Harmse, although 18 at the time, operated emotionally at a much younger age. This could have been a result of the relationship Harmse had with his father, Machiel, which was characterised by expert witnesses as violent and fraught with frustration. Harmse wrote a letter to the judge, Mr Justice Phillip Hattiongh, in which he told of his remorse at what he had done: "I want to make it clear that it was never in my heart to harm or kill anyone. I will for the rest of my life live with what happened." Judge Hattingh sentenced Harmse to 18 years for the killing of Pretorius and eight years (of which six would run concurrently with the murder sentence), and two terms of five years each for the other attacks, which sentences would also run concurrently with the murder sentence. |
|
 |
|
PLEASE VISIT THE CONTRIBUTOR'S WEBSITE
No reactions yet.
Please login or sign up to rate this intel.
Please login or sign up to add a comment.
The copyright for this content entitled "Teen-aged "Samurai" killer sentenced" has been specified by the contributor as:
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0
Details 
This content may be copied and distributed (but not modified), as long as a) it's for non-commercial use and b) the original author is acknowledged with a link back to the content page.
If you use this content according to the license specified, you must link to the following URL:
http://tonymac04.qondio.com/
|
|
May, 2012
2008
January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December
2009
January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December
2010
January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December
2011
January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December
2012
January, February, March, April, May
|
|
Not a member yet?
Qondio is a powerful network for making it online. If you have a website to
promote, we can help.
Sign up and get in on the action.
|
|
Welcome to Qondio! Discover the awesome power this network can deliver by going to our About page. Or you could skip straight to the Sign Up form.
|
|
