14 years for girlfriend's murder
Yet another gruesome intimate partner killing has ended in a jail term after almost four years of legal processes.
A 22-year-old man has been sentenced to an effective 14 years in prison for strangling his girlfriend, 19-year-old Janetta Babiep, to death at farm Warmfontein on 21 September 2014.
Willem Freddy Eksteen was sentenced on Monday to a 20-year jail term in the Windhoek High Court, of which six years were suspended.
Judge Dinnah Usiku suspended six years of the sentence for five years, on condition that Eksteen is not convicted of murder or any offence in which violence is an element during the period of suspension. Eksteen was convicted in February of Babiep's murder, read in conjunction with provisions of the Domestic Violence Act.
He and Babiep had been involved in domestic relationship at the time of her death.
“The seriousness of the offence the accused had been convicted of calls for a lengthy custodial sentence,” Judge Usiku said when sentencing Eksteen.
Eksteen arrived on the night of 21 September 2014 on farm Warmfontein, where the deceased was also employed. They met and later in the evening they retired to bed. The following morning she was discovered dead with a rope around her neck.
Eksteen later reported to the deceased's brother, Piet Babiep, that she had committed suicide.
According to medical examination the deceased died as a result of strangulation.
Eksteen vehemently denied killing Babiep, claiming the deceased took her own life by hanging herself with a rope in the room.
However, the court rejected his claims as false and mere afterthoughts, in order to evade prosecution.
“There is no doubt that the crimes of violence against women are on the rise in the country and it is therefore desirable that courts pass sentences that have a retributive effect, and with that, a clear message that such behaviour will not be tolerated,” Usiku said.
According to her Eksteen showed no remorse.
Usiku said the results of the medical examination showed that lot of force must have been applied during the strangulation, which caused internal bleeding, as evident from the photo plan.
FRED GOEIEMAN
Willem Freddy Eksteen was sentenced on Monday to a 20-year jail term in the Windhoek High Court, of which six years were suspended.
Judge Dinnah Usiku suspended six years of the sentence for five years, on condition that Eksteen is not convicted of murder or any offence in which violence is an element during the period of suspension. Eksteen was convicted in February of Babiep's murder, read in conjunction with provisions of the Domestic Violence Act.
He and Babiep had been involved in domestic relationship at the time of her death.
“The seriousness of the offence the accused had been convicted of calls for a lengthy custodial sentence,” Judge Usiku said when sentencing Eksteen.
Eksteen arrived on the night of 21 September 2014 on farm Warmfontein, where the deceased was also employed. They met and later in the evening they retired to bed. The following morning she was discovered dead with a rope around her neck.
Eksteen later reported to the deceased's brother, Piet Babiep, that she had committed suicide.
According to medical examination the deceased died as a result of strangulation.
Eksteen vehemently denied killing Babiep, claiming the deceased took her own life by hanging herself with a rope in the room.
However, the court rejected his claims as false and mere afterthoughts, in order to evade prosecution.
“There is no doubt that the crimes of violence against women are on the rise in the country and it is therefore desirable that courts pass sentences that have a retributive effect, and with that, a clear message that such behaviour will not be tolerated,” Usiku said.
According to her Eksteen showed no remorse.
Usiku said the results of the medical examination showed that lot of force must have been applied during the strangulation, which caused internal bleeding, as evident from the photo plan.
FRED GOEIEMAN
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