By Karyn Maughan and Kanina Foss
Five minutes to hug his son and tell him that "everything was going to be okay". That was all Machiel Harmse, father of convicted teenage samurai sword killer Morne Harmse, wanted in the moments after his son was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Staring into his son's eyes after Johannesburg High Court Judge Phillip Hattingh made his ruling, Harmse leaned over and put his hand over that of the teenager he says he and his wife "only ever wanted the best for".
But the moment was cut short by camera flashes and journalists shouting, "Morne, do you have anything you want to say?"
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| Staring into his son's eyes |
"We tried to talk to him... to tell him not to worry... 'go down, go down'... that was the last time we saw him," Machiel said yesterday.
"The judge has made his decision... our prayers have been that he would not sentence Morne to life... so we were grateful."
The interaction between Harmse and his son stood in sharp contrast to expert reports that described their relationship as violent and fraught with frustration. Experts made the observations as part of their efforts to explain why Morne had donned a mask and killed 16-year-old Nic Diederichs Technical High School pupil Jacques Pretorius with a sword, which he then used to attack and injure fellow pupil Stephan Bouwer and two staff members.
Speaking to The Star yesterday, Harmse said he his and his wife hoped that Morne would receive psychological help in jail. While Judge Hattingh had yesterday directed that Morne should be placed in a prison that had psychiatric facilities, Correctional Services spokesman Manelisi Wolela was unable to confirm this.
Meanwhile, Pretorius's mother, Adell Bekker, has expressed unhappiness about the sentence. "I think he should have been given life in jail," she said.
| Judge Hattingh pointed to the teenager's previously clean criminal record |
Explaining why he did not give Morne life for the murder, Judge Hattingh pointed to the teenager's previously clean criminal record, his youth and immaturity.
Instead, Judge Hattingh sentenced him to 18 years in jail for killing Pretorius and eight years (six of which were to run concurrently with the murder sentence) for the attack on Bouwer. Morne was also sentenced to two terms of five years each for the other attacks.
These would also run concurrently with the murder sentence.
- This article was originally published on page 3 of Pretoria News on September 11, 2009
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