Darryl Futter was convicted of culpable homicide in the 2016 death of Swedish volunteer Aksel Otterbeck, whose distraught parents want Futter to serve time behind bars

After more than three hours of giving heart-wrenching testimony, the parents of Swedish volunteer Aksel Otterbeck (19), who was killed when he was hit by a car in Table View on 14 December 2016, finally heard the words they've been waiting over seven years to hear.

Aksel's convicted killer, Darryl Futter, walked up to Maria and Jesper Otterbeck in the Cape Town regional court and said: "I'm sorry."

Emotional scenes played out in court on Monday, 12 February, when the Otterbecks gave evidence in aggravation of sentence. They want Futter to go to prison for Aksel's death.

On the day he died, Aksel and a group of about 10 NGO volunteers from different countries were walking down Arum Road in Table View. They were on their way to a café on the beachfront when a car crashed into them.

Aksel died on the pavement while paramedics tried in vain to save him. The postmortem showed that every bone in his body had been shattered. Another six volunteers were injured.

An Israeli citizen, Meshi Yehudai, was in a coma after the incident and was later flown home. Because of her deteriorating health, the State did not call her as a witness.