Kimberley - The man accused of killing Lerato Olifant, 27, by stabbing her repeatedly with an assegai after seeing her in the company of another lover, was found not guilty in the Northern Cape High Court after it was ruled that he was not in a state of mind to be held accountable for his actions at the time of the incident.
Shadrack Boikanyo was visibly relieved as court adjourned on Friday after Judge Johan Olivier ruled that he could not be held criminally liable as a series of traumatic events dating back to his youth, accompanied by the stress caused by suspicions of his girlfriend’s infidelity and her abuse of alcohol, left him teetering on the brink of a breakdown.
“An episode was finally triggered when he saw Olifant leaving a house in Sechoareng Street, on the morning of March 8 2015, in the company of another man with whom she was apparently having a clandestine relationship,” Olivier said during judgment.
Assegai murder accused, Shadrack Boikanyo (brown shirt), as well as family members and friends were visibly relieved as court adjourned on Friday after the judge ruled that he could not be held criminally liable for his actions. Photo: Danie van der Lith/DFA
While Olivier acknowledged the risks involved in releasing an accused on the grounds that he had suffered a temporary breakdown, he described Boikanyo as a credible witness who had subjected himself to a long cross-examination without his testimony being discredited.
“During the trial the court heard how Boikanyo, a qualified nurse, had been exposed to several events early in life that would later prove to have a detrimental impact on his psychological well-being.
“These incidents included coming across the remains of a person who had his/her face eaten off by vultures in 1984, when he was only 12 years old.
“Boikanyo had to deal with the attempted suicide of his brother a year later, before coming home one day, in 1986, to find that his mother had hung herself,” Olivier said.
He added that after completing school, Boikanyo qualified as a nurse and was later involved in counselling aids patients, who he felt used to “off-load their burdens on him”.
“He married a woman with two children from a previous relationship in 1994, but this union ended in divorce in 2008.
“This left Boikanyo suicidal, feeling that he had lost everything, and struggling to trust women.
“The accused met Olifant five years later and, with similar backgrounds, he soon fell in love with the deceased.
“However, according to Boikanyo, Olifant’s abuse of alcohol and unfaithfulness caused problems,” the judge said.
On numerous occasions, when Boikanyo expressed his suspicions of infidelity to the deceased, he was offered explanations for her suspicious behaviour and was told that his concerns were unsubstantiated.
Then, after several days of domestic trouble prior to the death of his girlfriend, Boikanyo visited Olifant’s family home, the night before the incident, to find his girlfriend inebriated.
“As had been the case on previous occasions, he was told by her mother that his suspicions of infidelity were unfounded before he returned to his house in Homelite, leaving Olifant with her mother for the evening.
“The following morning, when Boikanyo was on his way to fetch Olifant from her mother, he saw his girlfriend leaving a house in Sechoareng Street in the company of Clive Xozwa. She, on a previous occasion, denied having an affair with Xozwa,” Olivier continued.
Recalling the testimony of clinical psychiatrist, Tertia Spangenberg, Olivier stated that seeing the couple triggered a breakdown and left him in a state of automatism.
“The last memory Boikanyo recalls of Olifant being alive is the vision of a black dress moving past him before he later came to his senses while driving in Barkly Road.”
Spangenberg had three sessions with the accused shortly after the incident and told the court during the trial that Boikanyo suffered from Acute Stress Disorder, an anxiety disorder where an unwelcome trigger can lead to a breakdown, with the patient potentially not being able to adequately distinguish between right and wrong. This condition tends to dissipate over time.
“This is completely different from patchy or selective memory which is normally the first sign of fabrication,” Olivier said while handing down judgment.
Spangenberg further noted that she found no evidence that Boikanyo intended to mislead the court in any way while the fact that he tried to make amends with his partner after many indiscretions was a clear indication that he loved her.
During the trial the State called clinical psychiatrist, Zygmunt Piotrowski, as an expert witness to review Spangenberg’s diagnosis.
On the stand, Piotrowski alluded to two protection orders that had previously been sought against the accused, indicating that these pointed towards a propensity for violence.
Piotrowski was also skeptical that Boikanyo had been crying and trembling, while the feeling as though he was elsewhere was irreconcilable.
According to Olivier, Piotrowski further believed that Boikanyo had not attacked his girlfriend in a state of automatism. While he (Piotrowski) disagreed with Spangenberg’s prognosis, he acknowledged her expertise.
“This seems like a textbook example of a gradual build-up of stress to a person who already has a predisposition,” the judge concluded.
“The accused’s claim is backed by previous events which would have left him susceptible to a breakdown.
“What matters is not how a reasonable person would have responded under the circumstances but what was happening in his mind at the time.”