Cape Town - A Soshanguve man has been found guilty on charges of murder and attempted murder in a Pretoria court after trying to kill his children by lacing viennas and russians with poison.
The man, who the court describes only as ‘Mr X’, was found guilty of the murder of his two-year-old son and the attempted murder of his two older sons, aged eight and 11.
According to the Gauteng spokesperson for the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), Lumka Mahanjana, Mr X was further found guilty of the rape of his partner, who is the mother of his child and was further found guilty of three counts of contravening a protection order.
The court heard the man was in a relationship with the mother of his children from 2004 until 2018.
“On January 8, 2019, the mother applied for a protection order against the accused. However, he contravened the interim protection order by assaulting her, breaking into her house, and raping her. It was put on record that the family of Mr X pressured the mother to drop the charges of rape,” Mahanjana said.
On August 24, 2019, the court heard Mr X fetched his two-year-old son from his mother and proceeded to fetch the other two boys at the home of their paternal grandmother.
He took the children to his residence.
According to the evidence before the court, on their way to Mr X’s residence, he fed the children viennas and russians, which were laced with poison.
When the eldest boy, aged 11, refused to eat the viennas, he was assaulted by Mr X and forced to eat.
The court heard that upon arrival at Mr Z’s residence, the children fell ill, and he called their mother, telling her he was going to kill the children.
The mother arrived at his residents and found the lifeless body of their two-year-old son on top of his bed. She called the police and rushed the other two children to the hospital.
“The accused was arrested the same day at a railway station where he tried to kill himself and has been in custody since,” Mahanjana said.
While delivering his judgment, Judge Masopa noted discrepancies in Mr X’s testimony and found the testimony of the two surviving children to be honest and credible.
Masopa found that State succeeded in proving its case beyond s reasonable doubt.