A father, accused of killing his younger son with the help of his eldest son, denied guilt in the Windhoek High Court yesterday before Judge Philanda Christiaan.

Borris le Roux (59) and Hendrik le Roux (27) are accused of murdering Carlos le Roux by beating him all over his body with broomsticks, pieces of hosepipes and screen wire on 7 April 2021 at their residence in Takarania in Mariental.

The victim was 24 at the time of his demise. The accused pleaded not guilty to charges of murder and assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm. 

Their legal aid instructed lawyer Peru Liebenberg to confirm the pleas. He informed Judge Christiaan that they would remain silent and put the onus on the State to prove every allegation against them. However, during an appearance in the Mariental Magistrate Court, they informed the magistrate that they acted in self-defence. 

They claimed that the victim arrived home the night before the incident and allegedly became violent towards his father and brother.

 They said they shot him in self-defence. 

The State, however, alleges that the accused intentionally killed the victim because he had become a problem to them. Neither the police nor the social workers could assist him. 

The indictment reads that the victim received a government grant, as he suffered from a mental illness/psychosis. He was unfit to work. 

He had a history of damaging the property of one or both accused persons.

 The brother had opened a case against him for setting his property alight in December 2017.

He, however, withdrew the charges in 2018. 

On 8 April 2021, the victim again broke four windowpanes of the residence of the accused by throwing stones at it, the indictment reads.

It further states that during the early morning hours of 9 April 2021, the two accused attacked the victim.

They hit him on his body and head with broomsticks, plastic pipes, steel pipes and/or other unknown objects, and/or hit his head against hard objects. 

The victim died at the scene from subdural bleeding caused by blunt force trauma to the head. 

The State alleges that the accused acted with a common purpose at the time. The State called detective warrant officer Hotago Gomases, who attended the scene as a scene of crime officer. 

She told the court that she was summoned to the scene after a man allegedly reported at the police station that he assaulted his son. 

When she arrived there, she found the victim in a room, bare-chested with black shorts. 

She added that she observed wounds all over his body.

 She said she found clothes in the bathroom and pieces of a broken broomstick as well as pieces of hosepipe and screen wire with blood stains on them. She then took pictures of the victim and items she found.

She also took swabs from the blood stains.  The State is represented by Ethel Ndlovu. 

The accused are both out on bail.

-rrouth@nepc.com.na