Teen gets 53 years for killing school secretary

It was an evil deed and reflected the conduct of a hardened criminal, a judge told a former pupil of the private Rabboni Christian School in Brits, who at point blank range shot the secretary of the school twice in the head, before he sentenced the youngster to a total of 53 years in jail. Of this he will effectively serve 25 years. According to a report on the IoL site, Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) Judge Bert Bam determined his fate yesterday. The former pupil blamed his friends for straying from the straight and narrow path, and a social worker, who assessed him, also said that the wrong friends could possibly have influenced him. But Bam remarked that the ‘wrong friends’ were already expelled from the school by the time he shot and killed Hester Koster on 22 November 2016. He also noted that the young killer, who was 16 at the time, took the lead in the killing. Another teenager who was with him at the time, earlier pleaded not guilty to murder, kidnapping and robbery. He will go on trial at a later stage. The teen killer pleaded guilty to five charges, including murder. Bam said the teenager’s age was the only thing which had saved him from being sentenced to life imprisonment.