SA man who couldn’t accept his stepson’s illness jailed for murder in the UK

A Johannesburg man who turned his mentally challenged stepson’s life into a “miserable existence” for years before killing him in the UK has been imprisoned.

After a six-day trial, the Sheffield Crown Court sentenced 61-year-old Jabulane Abraham Ngcobo to five years imprisonment after he was found guilty of murdering 33-year-old Kabelo Sam Mokoena in Hull in August 2017.

Ngcobo, who was sentenced last week, attacked Mokoena in the family’s home, killing him after he put him into a chokehold. The BBC reported last week that Mokoena died in hospital two days after the attack.

An electrical engineer, Mokoena, who was studying sound engineering at the time of his death, apparently suffered from several mental health challenges, according to UK authorities.

Mokoena, according to his family, moved after matriculating from their home south of Johannesburg to the UK in the late 1990s. There, he joined his younger brother and mother, a nurse who runs a caring agency.

They still live in the UK.

Mokoena’s family declined to comment, saying “it is still early days”, before asking for their privacy to be respected.

In a statement released by the Humberside Police Department, detective chief inspector Tony Cockerill, the investigating officer in Mokoena’s murder, described him as a “vulnerable adult”.

“The evidence showed a long-standing and developing bitterness towards Sam by his stepfather, Ngcobo, who had never been able to accept his illness.

“Ngcobo had dictated a regime in the family home, which meant Sam experienced a miserable existence evidenced during the trial.”

He said Mokoena died after Ngcobo “held him in a head lock for such a length of time and with such enormous pressure that his heart stopped”.

“The defence put forward was one of self-defence, but was not believed by the court. This conviction reinforces the resentment and treatment Sam suffered.

“This is a tragic case which led to a young man losing his life.”