GRAPHIC CONTENT | Man sentenced to life in prison for minor’s murder

WARNING: THIS STORY MAY OFFEND SENSITIVE READERS INCLUDING CHILDREN

The Pretoria High Court has sentenced a man from Lotus Gardens in Pretoria to life in prison, and six years for the murder of an 11-year-old girl whom he stabbed 66 times. This over an unrequited love from the child’s mother.

Chauke was also sentenced to six years for kidnapping the victim – a charge he pleaded not guilty to.

The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) says the convict, Conwel Chauke, went to the woman’s home in Mamelodi in Pretoria where he lured the child, who was playing with friends, under the false pretense that he wanted to collect his belongings from her home.

He then stabbed the girl child 66 times, covered her body and fled the scene.

“The court ordered that the sentence run concurrently, and he be declared unfit to possess a firearm. The man stabbed and killed the child at her home in Mamelodi because the child’s mother did not agree to the man’s request for a love relationship. In court, he asked the court to deviate from imposing the prescribed minimum sentence. However, the state successfully argued for life imprisonment. The NPA welcomed the sentence and hopes that sentence will send the strong message that the NPA will ensure that offenders who commit such violent crimes towards children do not have a place in society,” says NPA Regional Spokesperson, Lumka Mahanjana.