Amanda Reyneke gets community service

15 November 2011 - 02:25 By PERTUNIA RATSATSI
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The woman who plotted to kill former Blue Bulls rugby player Deon Helberg has pleaded guilty in the Pretoria Magistrate's Court and will spend six months doing community service in a woman's prison.

Magistrate Adriaan Bekker sentenced her to three years' imprisonment, suspended for five-and-a-half years.

She will perform community services for 16 hours a month at a women's prison.

In 2007, Amanda Reyneke, 48, had an affair with Helberg, now 22, who was in a relationship with her daughter, Jalien, 20. She told the court that Helberg often spent the night at her house.

"There was an immediate attraction between us," she said.

She added that their affair began in August 2007 when she took him to Pretoria to sign his first rugby contract and they booked into a guesthouse.

They kept the affair secret for two years but Jalien found a love letter Deon wrote to Reyneke in June 2009.

Helberg broke up with Reyneke, and her husband left her in February 2010.

In July last year, she hired two men to "hurt Helberg in a way that he would never play rugby again".

Reyneke told the court that she had to care for her autistic daughter.

She also said that she was receiving psychological treatment and wanted to close that chapter of her life because it had damaged her relationship with her family and friends.

Prosecutor Louis Wiese said: "Despite everything, Deon does not want her to go to jail and the community is not in danger."

Bekker said to Reyneke: "I hope everybody can move on and that the psychological treatment has helped you understand yourself better."

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