Vapeni Lucia Boois, a former police officer accused of murdering her one-year-old child and burying him in a shallow grave, told Windhoek High Court Judge Philanda Christiaan yesterday that she will not plead to the charges she is facing. Boois told the court that she is not triable as her matter was already resolved in the Keetmanshoop Regional Court. 

As a matter of fact, she said, she already pleaded, and her case was finalised. State Advocate Emma Mayavero, however, refuted this and said that the accused only went through preliminary proceedings in the lower courts before the matter was forwarded to the High Court for trial. Judge Christiaan ruled that the matter can proceed and informed Boois that she entered not guilty pleas on her behalf. 

She just nodded and told the court that she just wants her verdict so she can go on with her life. Boois also told the court that she cannot be indicted in Namibia as she renounced her Namibian citizenship and is now a ward of the United Nations (UN). She said she can only be indicted by a tribunal of the UN and not by Namibian courts. 

The accused has been vocal in court since November last year, when she told then-Deputy Judge President Hosea Angula that the State should finalise her case. 

She, at the time, stated she refused to be indicted, and expressed being tired and that her case needed to be resolved because it was causing her health and mental problems. 

Earlier this year, Boois again expressed frustration over delays in finalising her trial, which, however, was delayed after she contradicted a psychiatric report presented by the State. 

The report indicated that she was fit to stand trial, but should be held accountable for diminished responsibility, as the report also indicated she had borderline personality disorder, combined with persistent depressive disorder. 

However, she rejected the evaluation and was adamant she was not mentally disturbed. 

In the report, the accused admitted to stabbing her baby in the neck and abdomen with a knife at least 15 times and then buried his body in a shallow grave in a sandy riverbed in the Bethanie area. 

She further admitted, at the time, that she wanted to end the suffering and pain of this world by ending the life of her baby and then herself. 

The report indicated that at the time she allegedly murdered her son, “she was overwhelmed and depressed,” but still able to appreciate the wrongfulness and consequences of her actions, although she had diminished responsibility for her deeds. 

Hence, on 22 April 2025, Christiaan was satisfied that although the accused was suffering from a mental disorder at the time of the commission of the offence, such a condition did not render her incapable of appreciating the wrongfulness of her conduct, or of acting in accordance with that appreciation. 

Yesterday, the mother of the accused testified that there must be something wrong in the accused’s head, because of the manner in which the deceased was killed. Hildegard Boois told the court that the accused at first wanted nothing to do with the child and left him at the shelter for unwanted babies in Swakopmund. 

She further said that the accused told her when she was four months pregnant that she was raped by a white man, but it later turned out that it was one Ernst Hammerslacht from Rehoboth who fathered the child. She also told the court that before the pregnancy, the accused was a happy and joyful person, but she became aggressive and moody after she got pregnant. 

The matter continues and Boois who is not represented remains in custody. 

-rrouth@nepc.com.na