Windhoek High Court Judge Dinnah Usiku sentenced two men convicted of the brutal murder and rape of an elderly couple from Koës in //Kharas region during 2 and 3 February 2018 two terms of life imprisonment.
Usiku convicted Julius Arndt (47) and Andries Afrikaner (43) on two counts of murder each and of housebreaking and robbery with aggravating circumstances, rape and conspiring to commit murder and robbery.
The judge however found a third accused, Johannes Christiaan (43), not guilty on all charges. They were charged with breaking into the house of Giel and Sarie Botma and of raping the 80-year-old woman. It was also the State’s case that the accused shot and killed the 78-year-old Giel at point-blank range with his own .22 calibre rifle. Sarie was strangled with a shoelace after being raped. Judge Usiku convicted the men after the State, represented by Advocate Seredine Jacobs, adduced sufficient evidence.
Judge Usiku said that the deceased couple were killed in a cruel and gruesome manner, and both accused showed no remorse over their crimes, but instead tried to pin the blame on each other.
“The accused persons jointly shot Giel Botma in cold blood and proceeded to rape the deceased female at an estimated age of 80 years. “At no stage did accused 2 disassociate himself from accused 1’s actions and was through out present when the shooting, raping and housebreaking was taking place and he even assisted accused 1 to enter the victim’s house, which evidence remain unchallenged as accused 2 opted to remain silent,” the judge said.
She went on to say the accused persons actions brought a lot of unhappiness not only to themselves and their families but they also deprived the deceased couple’s loved ones a family pillar they used to lean on.
Although the accused persons are first offenders, they committed serious crimes, the judge said, and added that they were convicted of more than one offence. She said the courts should generally guard against the undesirable effect that the cumulative effect of all the sentences does not become unreasonably onerous for accused persons, but there are certain crimes that automatically aggravate sentence such as the brutality of the crime, the weapons used and the rape of an elderly woman in the presence of more than one person.
Therefore, she said, in sentencing where it involves serious crimes and the prevalence thereof, it is not uncommon to reason that the emphasis should fall on deterrence and retribution as objectives of punishment. She further said sentences must not be too lenient or the administration of justice may fall into disrepute and injured persons may be inclined to take the law into their own hands.
The judge said sentences for the type of offences the accused were convicted of normally attract long terms of imprisonment and she accordingly sentenced both to two terms of life imprisonment on the murder counts, 10 years each on the housebreaking with intent to rob and robbery with aggravating circumstances count, 15 years each on the rape count, and 15 years each on the conspiracy to commit murder and rape count.
She ordered that the sentences run concurrently with the sentences on the murder counts. Arndt was represented by Joseph Andreas and Afrikaner represented himself after he fired several lawyers assigned to defend him.