Waterkloof Four sentences this month
The Pretoria Regional Court will hand down sentences on January 30 in the case of our Waterkloof schoolboys convicted of murdering a homeless man and assaulting another.
The State argued that due to the serious nature of the crime the court had no choice but to jail the four. It asked for a sentence of between 10 to 12 years, says a report on the SABC News site. The court said it would consider the fact that they probably did not want to kill the man, but they could have foreseen that he would have died due to their actions. A legal representative for the four told the court his clients were good people who had done a bad thing. Jaap Cilliers SC was presenting his final argument in mitigation of sentence of Christoff Bekker, Frikkie du Preez, Gert van Schalkwyk and Reinach Tiedt, says a report on the News24 site. Cilliers repeatedly told the court they were not prison material. State advocate, Johan Kruger SC, has handed to the court an 86-page report on sentences in similar cases. The youths involved were sentenced to, on average, 12 years in prison. Full report on News24 site http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/News/0,,2-7-1442_2056989,00.html Full report on SABC News site http://www.sabcnews.com/south_africa/crime1justice/0,2172,142164,00.html