Poverty no excuse for brutal murder of 95-year-old woman‚ rules judge

21 September 2018 - 12:35 By Devon Koen
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Judge Dayalin Chetty‚ jailed Phumzile Mabope for 25 years on September 21 2018 for the murder of a 95-year-old Uitenhage woman
Judge Dayalin Chetty‚ jailed Phumzile Mabope for 25 years on September 21 2018 for the murder of a 95-year-old Uitenhage woman
Image: Devon Koen

Deprivation may have triggered a young man’s initial descent into crime‚ but that does not diminish the severity of the brutal rape and murder of a 95-year-old Uitenhage woman.

This was according to judge Dayalin Chetty‚ who on Thursday jailed Phumzile Mabope‚ 19‚ for 25 years.

The teenager had earlier pleaded guilty.

Handing down his sentence in the Port Elizabeth High Court‚ Chetty said the rape and murder of Maria Vermaak in her Luyt Street home on February 24 2017 was inexcusable.

“Such socially deviant behaviour can never be attributed to a deprived socio-economic background and cannot be countenanced‚” said Chetty.

Mabope committed the first of seven offences of housebreaking with intent to steal and rob in December 2014 at the age of 16. Before the murder of Vermaak‚ he had committed no fewer than nine crimes.

A social worker’s report handed in during pre-sentencing proceedings showed that Mabope had a number of run-ins with the law during his younger years‚ after he and his siblings were abandoned to look after themselves by their alcoholic parents.

“I have no doubt that the accused’s initial [descent] into crimes of theft and housebreaking with intent to steal was actuated by the deprivation experienced in his household‚” said Chetty.

- HeraldLIVE


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