A man from Rehoboth yesterday denied any knowledge of the attempted murder and various assaults he is accused of having committed in a three-day span.
Sacky Goliath (39) told Judge Naomi Shivute he does not know of the assaults and attempted murder he is accused of between 31 May and 2 June 2019. He, however, admitted that he killed his girlfriend of 17 years and mother of his two children by hitting her with the sharp end of a spade several times on her head.
The judge already convicted him of murder with direct intent after he admitted that he intended to kill Welfriede Saron (40) when he hit her several times with the spade on 2 June 2019.
During his testimony in his own defence yesterday, Goliath kept on saying ‘I don’t know, I don’t know’ when his Legal Aid lawyer, Mese Tjituri asked him about the charges. During cross-examination by prosecutor Joseph Andreas, however, he admitted that when he hit the mother of the deceased, Barbara Campbell on the forehead with the spade, although accidental, the fact that he used a dangerous weapon could be seen as intent to kill.
On the other charges, he remained steadfast that he did not commit them and repeatedly said ‘no’ or ‘I don’t know’ when questioned about them.
On a question by Andreas as to why several State witnesses who did not even know him will come to court and lie to incriminate him, he answered that was just what it was, lies to incriminate him.
With regards to the charge that he tried to murder Campbell, he said that she was hit accidentally when he tried to hit the deceased who was behind Campbell and that he did not mean to hit her. Campbell testified that she sustained a deep gash above her left eye, which required several stitches when Goliath hit her with the shovel.
She said that she and her daughter were returning from church when Goliath approached them.
When her daughter saw Goliath, the mother said, she told her to run, but she did not as she is old and cannot run. The victim then went behind her and grabbed her with both arms around her waist to hide from Goliath who came wielding the spade. She further said that she held up her arms to try and block the blows, Goliath was raining on her daughter and in the process was hit and both she and her daughter fell.
She further said that she then managed to crawl away between the legs of Goliath who was standing over her daughter delivering several blows to her head.
After a while, he stopped and walked a distance but returned and resumed beating the victim and she then begged him to stop as he already killed her.
Before the death of Saron, Goliath is further accused of threatening to assault the deceased by chasing her wielding a stick and stones threatening to attack her and that he hit Elaria Abisay who came to the aid of the deceased on her hand with a stick with the intention to cause her serious harm. The matter will return to court today for submissions on the verdict.
-rrouth@nepc.com.na
Roland Routh
2020-10-23 07:27:29 | 1 months ago
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