Keetmanshoop – THE 29-year-old Desmond Vries who stands accused of murdering a 6-year-old boy last week Thursday made his first appearance in the Keetmanshoop Magistrate’s Court yesterday morning.
Vries appeared on a murder charge in connection with the gruesome death of the 6-year-old Curtis van der Westhuisen in the Tseiblaagte residential area in Keetmanshoop. According to the Crime Investigations Co-ordinator of NamPol in the //Karas Region, Deputy Commissioner Rudolf Isaaks, the boy was allegedly beaten and strangled to death while his two 7-year-old friends looked on. The suspect had vowed to hurt the mother of the boy by making her cry before he committed the alleged crime. The little boy’s mother Clemencia van der Westhuisen says she fails to understand why her little child had to be killed in such a brutal fashion. “While they were playing dominos he told his girlfriend’s brothers and sisters that he would make me cry.
I cannot understand why, maybe it was because his girlfriend always called me to help her when he beat on her,” said the distraught mother. “I was at work when my cousin called me to come home, that was around 12 at night,” sobbed Van der Westhuisen. According to relatives the little boy was found with his fists clenched, which suggests that he tried to defend himself during the attack. The case was postponed to January 13, 2014 for further police investigation and the suspect was refused bail.
By Jemima Beukes