THE children of a Motherwell man who stabbed his wife to death in front of them expressed their relief yesterday after he was found guilty of murder.
The public gallery in the Port Elizabeth High Court was filled with family members who held hands while Judge Irma Schoeman read out her judgment.
The 47-year-old man, who is not being named to protect the identity of his children, stabbed his wife 14 times on October 1 2013.
He admitted his relationship with his wife had been going through a rocky patch and that they had been fighting about money on the day of the murder.
His children – aged nine, 14 and 16 – agreed yesterday that they wanted nothing to do with their father.
The two younger siblings watched as their father stabbed their mother, begging him to stop. “We all changed our surnames because we don’t want to be associated with that man, and we probably won’t speak to him again, but we don’t know what the future holds yet,” the 14-year-old said.
Schoeman said the testimony of the children correlated with the results of the postmortem report.
She dismissed the testimony of the husband, who said he had been defending himself against his wife, who had attacked him with a bread knife.
“The wounds could not have been inflicted according to the accused’s version . . . he testified that he could not stop even if he wanted to.
That statement makes it clear he was not acting in self defence,” Schoeman said. The couple’s children are living with their maternal grandparents in Mother well. Defence advocate Alfonso Hattingh will apply for bail for the man prior to sentencing.
The man will remain in custody until the bail hearing.
The post Relief after father’s murder conviction appeared first on HeraldLIVE.