The Northern Cape high court sitting in Upington has sentenced Samuel Blom to life imprisonment , after he was found him guilty of murder and the rape of his life partner, Katriena Kedebone Petro. The accused was convicted on one count of murder, two counts rape, as well as defeating the course of justice.
According to the National Prosecuting Authority in July 2019, near the Dakota Informal Settlement in Upington, the accused and the victim were at their home when the accused assaulted the victim before repeatedly raping her. When the accused realised that the victim was not responsive and in trying to conceal his crimes, the state alleges that the accused began to drag the body of the deceased from their home to nearby bushes. The naked body of the victim was discovered by children on Saturday 20 July 2019. The Police were alerted to this gruesome discovery and through their intensive detailed investigations, the accused was arrested.
During the trial, the court heard through the medical evidence report that the injuries that the victim had endured at the hands of her intimate life partner, were like injuries that are associated with those that are usually suffered by victims of motor vehicle accidents. Prosecution-led evidence as tabled by Senior State Advocate Johannes Cloete, indicated to the court that this incident was not isolated as the accused had regularly assaulted the victim, even before that fateful night.
The NPA spokesperson in the Northern Cape Mojalefa Senokoatsane said “In aggravation of the sentence, Advocate Johannes Cloete argued that the court should not deviate from the mandatory sentence of life imprisonment unless the court found substantial or compelling circumstances that would justify the accused being sentenced to a lesser sentence. The prosecution further argued that life imprisonment would be the only suitable sentence considering the brutality of the assaults on the victim and the prevalence of Gender-based Violence.”
Senokoatsane further added that they hopes this sentence will send a clear message to other perpetrators of GBV that indeed the justice system is serious about fighting the scourge of GBV-related cases, particularly femicides.
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