Werner Menges
29 April 2008
Windhoek — The trial of Mariental child killer Ashley van Wyk ended in the High Court in Windhoek yesterday with Van Wyk being sentenced to an effective 31-year prison term.
Acting Judge Hosea Angula convicted Van Wyk (24) on charges of murder and theft yesterday morning. He then sentenced Van Wyk to 30 years' imprisonment on the murder charge and a one-year jail term for theft.
Because Van Wyk has previous convictions for theft on his criminal record, the jail term on the theft charge should be served consecutively to the 30-year sentence, Acting Judge Angula ordered.
Van Wyk was convicted and sentenced two weeks after his trial started with an admission from him that he had caused the death of a 15-year-old boy, Kain Pienaar, at Mariental on May 15 2006.
Van Wyk claimed that it was an accidental killing and that he did not intend to end Pienaar's life, though.
Van Wyk's version of the events that led to Pienaar's death was rejected as not reasonably possibly true, with Acting Judge Angula concluding that Van Wyk had the intention to kill the boy.
That still left the court guessing about the reason for the killing, though.
"It's brutal, it's senseless, I don't know why you killed that boy," Acting Judge Angula told Van Wyk during the sentencing.
During the trial Van Wyk told the court that he had found Pienaar at a hitch-hiking spot at Mariental on the morning of May 15 2006.
Because Pienaar was a small boy who was hiking alone, he decided to try to help him, Van Wyk said.
He testified that Pienaar eventually suggested that they should rather go for a swim in the Fish River west of Mariental.
After they had found a pool that seemed like a suitable swimming place, they started playing, Van Wyk said.
He told the court that as part of this game, they tied each other's hands with a piece of rope.
They also threw clods of clay at each other, he said.
He testified that he was aiming to throw such a clod at Pienaar's legs when it instead hit Pienaar against the head.
Pienaar, whose arms were tied with the rope at that stage, keeled over, falling into the pool, Van Wyk said.
He related that this turn of events shocked him, and that he turned, grabbed the plastic carrying bag with clothing and shoes that Pienaar had with him, and ran from the scene.
On the way, he said, he threw away Pienaar's clothes.
He kept Pienaar's shoes, however.
These he sold to someone at Mariental for N$30, and used this money to buy some dagga and a quarter of a Mandrax tablet, Van Wyk said.
During the trial the court also heard evidence from a 14-year-old girl who testified that she saw Van Wyk tie Pienaar's arms and then lay Pienaar down on the ground near the pool.
She added that before she saw this, she had heard screaming coming from the direction of the pond.
She said she saw Pienaar jump up and run away from Van Wyk, who then threw an object at him, hitting the boy against the head.
Pienaar fell, and Van Wyk went to pick him up and threw him into the pool of water, she testified.
Pienaar's arms had been tied very tightly above his elbows, Acting Judge Angula noted in his judgement.
Abrasions were also found on both his knees - something that would corroborate the eyewitness's testimony that Pienaar had fallen to the ground after Van Wyk threw something against his head, Acting Judge Angula said.
He added that Van Wyk's description of the game he said he and the boy were playing was at variance with the testimony given by the eyewitness.
Van Wyk's claim that Pienaar fell directly into water after the clod hit his head also did not tie in with medical evidence that no indications were found that Pienaar had drowned - which meant that he had been dead already when he landed in the water, Acting Judge Angula also noted.
According to further medical evidence, Pienaar had a circular fracture to the right side of his head.
This could not have been caused by something like a clay clod, and a much harder object, such as a stone, must have been used to cause such an injury, Acting Judge Angula said.
On the motive for the killing, the court was ultimately left guessing, with Acting Judge Angula remarking: "I cannot understand why you killed that boy.
I really do not know."
The court heard during the trial that Pienaar, whose mother had died some time before, had attended his father's funeral shortly before his path crossed with Van Wyk's as he tried to hitch a ride back to Maltahoehe, where he lived.
Acting Judge Angula commented on this score: "He was grieving, he was alone, and you took him, you lured him from his way."
State advocate Andrew Muvirimi conducted the prosecution.
Van Wyk was represented by Louis Karsten, on instructions from the Legal Aid Directorate.
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