WINDHOEK – “I am not persuaded that this is an instance where the accused deserves mercy and where a partly suspended sentence would be appropriate,” Judge Christi Liebenberg said before he sentenced Richard Hange, 27, to 32 years imprisonment for murder with direct intent.
Hange was last week Friday convicted of the brutal and “senseless” killing of the mother of his child, Lisa Kandovazu, in the Windhoek High Court. According to the judge, Hange trapped the deceased in a locked bedroom and used a lethal weapon leaving her with no chance to defend herself against the brutal attack.
“This places the murder of the deceased in the category of senseless murders committed against the most vulnerable in society – an evil and viciousness that has become the fate of too many innocent people in our society,” he stressed.
According to Liebenberg, the deceased had the right to terminate her love relationship with the accused without paying dearly with her life.
“The effect of so-called ‘passion killings’ on society is evident from public outcries due to the high number of incidents reported in the media everyday,” the judge said.
The present case is no exception of an instance where jealousy and self-righteousness was upper-most in the mind of the accused, who simply ended the life of the deceased as of right – a right he was never entitled to and which is enshrined in the constitution, he emphasised.
He stated Hange’s unsuccessful attempt to commit suicide by cutting his own throat evokes little sympathy from the court because, “had he conducted himself in the first place as a civilised person, none of this would have happened”.
The termination of love relationships and even marriages, unfortunately and sadly so, is part of daily life and no matter how difficult it might be, the solution lies not in the taking of a life or revenge and in doing so the accused not only failed his minor child by killing his mother, but he failed society, he noted.
Liebenberg said that every law-abiding citizen is shocked to the core at the rate of murders and rapes committed in this country, especially of defenceless women and the vulnerable in society, and the brutality and callousness that accompany them.
He said the feelings and requirements of the community, the need to protect society against people such as the accused and other potential offenders must be equally considered.
According to Liebenberg, in the present case the accused did not take the court into his confidence, but instead fabricated evidence designed to escape justice.