A life sentence for the man convicted of killing seven-year-old William Duiker has brought “plenty of satisfaction” to police in De Aar in the Northern Cape.
William Bester‚ 36‚ who was a friend of the Duiker family‚ was handed the maximum sentence in the De Aar High Court on Thursday after he pleaded guilty to the boy’s murder. Duiker’s body was found dumped next to a railway line in August last year after he was stabbed to death.
The Duiker family had been “adopted” by the De Aar police after their father was sent to prison for murdering their mother‚ according to police spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Dimakatso Mooi.
“In 2014 police in De Aar found the [seven] Duiker children staying in a plastic shack on a dumping site‚” Mooi said.
“Different stakeholders came in to assist the family of seven that was headed by the eldest‚ who is 21 years old‚ and last year a house was built and furnished for them and they moved into it in March.”
The cluster commander of the Pixley Ka Seme region in the province‚ Brigadier Nomahlubi Sofika‚ applauded the work done by officers in securing Bester’s conviction and welcomed the sentencing.
“By killing the children we are destroying the future and those who kill them do not deserve to live in this society. May this sentence send a strong message to other perpetrators that killing of children will not be tolerated by the police‚” Sofika said.
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