KwaZulu Natal prostitute gets life for killing 60-year-old husband

A prostitute was handed a life sentence by the Pietermaritzburg High Court on Wednesday for murdering her husband.

Thenjiwe Griffiths, 32, was sentenced to a further 15 years' imprisonment for the aggravated robbery of Alan Griffiths, 60, in January 2006.

The pair were married for eight months before Alan's body was found in a field near Colenso. He had been strangled and his ribs broken.

Judge Rishi Seegobin said Alan, a retired engineer living a reasonably comfortable life in Richards Bay, "did not deserve to die this way".

"The nature of the murder fills one with revulsion."

It was believed Thenjiwe hired people posing as hitch-hikers to kill her husband.

Alan, an alcoholic, was living in Richards Bay when he met Thenjiwe, a prostitute working in a local bar.

Alan's attorney Connie Marais testified that two weeks after their marriage, Alan said he had made a mistake to marry and wanted a divorce.

He obtained a police protection order against her and her family and complained of abuse and an injury.

They had married in community of property which entitled her to half his estate. She had taken possession of his car, bank cards, and other possessions and locked him inside the house, or out of the house, and moved her family in.

She had pleaded not guilty.