Mom: 'Movie of what Novella did plays in my mind'

Where does a mother’s nightmare begin, and where does it end?

In the case of Doris Weitz, it began with a single phone call three years ago that shattered her universe. And it has yet to run its course.

On Tuesday, Weitz slowly made her way to the witness box in the Cape Town High Court, where she led the court through the life of her only daughter, Gabi Alban, and her untimely death in Camps Bay at the hands of her boyfriend, Diego Novella.

In aggravation of sentence, she told Judge Vincent Saldanha: “Diego Novella has given me a life sentence without parole. There will be no recovery from this. He has given Gabi’s father, Howdy, a life sentence without parole. All I can say is, I hope he will not be outside of prison while I am still alive.”

Weitz said the way the Guatemalan butchered her daughter “reflected extraordinary rage”, and that she now has post-traumatic stress disorder, sees a psychiatrist once a week, takes medication and cries herself to sleep nightly.

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