Philda Sarlie recalls nightmare shooting

Days after shooting her abusive lover, Philda Sarlie was busy arranging his memorial service.

That was two years ago. She was never charged, because a prosecutor deemed that she killed James Apollis in self-defence after taking yet another beating at his hands.

But in June the darkest day in the mother-of-three's life came back to haunt her when she received a subpoena requesting her attendance, at an inquest at the Johannesburg Magistrate's Court, into his death.

This time Sarlie, 52, fears the court may come to a different conclusion.

"How do you sleep at night when you face going to jail at my age?" asked a distraught Sarlie this week.

She said she suffered years of abuse at the hands of her long-time partner and is still haunted by the events of April 5 2009.

She said she had been fast asleep when Apollis, 49, returned from a local nightclub and began to savagely beat her up for no apparent reason at their home in Bosmont, western Johannesburg.

"I felt something trampling on me. At first I thought it was a burglar but when I opened my eyes I realised it was James. He was standing on top of me. He kicked me and sat on top of me. He strangled me. I don't know how long it lasted."

She said that, as usual, whenever he beat her up, he would whip out his firearm and place it nearby.

"He would take out his gun and then beat me up. That was the pattern of the attacks. He once fired a shot at me. Luckily it missed."

This time Sarlie said she feared the worst and, as she struggled to get out of his clutches, she somehow managed to get hold of his revolver and shot him once in the chest.

With tears welling up in her eyes, Sarlie said: "After I fired the shot he called my name once and went quiet."

Following a criminal investigation by the police, Sarlie said she was told that the senior prosecutor had declined to prosecute her.

She said she had gotten the shock of her life after receiving the subpoena. "It's frightening because all this time I thought everything had been laid to rest."

Experts this week agreed that the initial decision not to arrest or charge Sarlie would have no bearing on the inquest.

NPA spokesman Mthunzi Mhaga said it was standard practice not to charge a suspect if evidence found at the scene and statements from witnesses confirmed it had been self-defence.

He said the senior prosecutor could also decline to prosecute if there was no prospect of a successful prosecution.

But chief prosecutor Matric Luphondo, while not commenting on this case, said an inquest could arrive at two possible decisions.

"It may find that no one was to blame. But it could also find there was someone responsible for the death of the deceased."

The couple met in 1990 and were happy - until Apollis allegedly became possessive and abusive. Sarlie admitted that he abused alcohol.

"He would kick me. He punched me or hit me with anything until I started bleeding or turned blue."

At times, she said, Apollis would beat her up until he fell asleep.

She said she filed several complaints with the police over the years but had always withdrawn them after she and Apollis had talked things through.

She said she still did not know what triggered the attack on the night of the killing - only that it changed her life forever.

The inquest hearing into Apollis's death resumes on October 12.