‘I said I loved her, then I stabbed her’

File picture: Independent Media

File picture: Independent Media

Published Mar 25, 2017

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Durban – "I wished her happy anniversary and told her I loved her.”

Those were the last words Sugen Naicker, 38, said to his common-law wife, Lorraine Munsamy, before stabbing her multiple times in a taxi on January 14 last year.

On Friday, Naicker appeared in the Durban High Court for his trial. He pleaded guilty on two charges of assault and not guilty of murder.

State prosecutor Krishen Shah said the state would not accept his plea as his statement contradicted evidence.

Naicker’s statement details events leading up to the murder, problems in the marriage and a protection order taken against him by Munsamy.

He said that despite her moving out of their shared home, they had spent “intimate time” together and the children had spent weekends with him.

According to his statement, incidents leading to her death started in January last year on the first day of school for the couple’s twin children, when he met his wife at school.

“I grabbed her hand to talk to her. I asked her to make our marriage work and she and the children should come back home so we could live together as a family. Lorraine said she wasn’t interested and I should f*** off,” read the statement.

He followed his wife into the taxi as she left school, where he admitted ”slapping her” when she would not talk to him.

The next morning, he arranged for the taxi driver to fetch him, saying it was he and his wife’s anniversary.

“There were a few passengers in the taxi with Lorraine, who sat in the first row of seats behind the driver. In the taxi, I wished Lorraine ‘Happy Anniversary’ and told her I loved her. She told me not talk to her,” the statement read.

When the taxi stopped, Munsamy got up to leave. Naicker asked her to get “back together as a family”. When she said she had met someone else, “I became very upset and angry I pulled out my Okapi knife that I use in the butchery and I stabbed her a few times on her body. Lorraine sat down with her head down and she was crying. When I realised Lorraine was seriously hurt and bleeding, I became upset and tried to commit suicide, stabbing myself on the left of my chest, near my heart”, read the statement. He was taken to hospital and later learned Munsamy had died.

While his statement was being read out, Naicker stood in the dock impassively. His brother, Seeran Naicker, was in court, describing his brother as “a very quiet person.”

“We didn’t expect this and our mother is very stressed. My brother is a normal guy. He really loved her (Munsamy) and his children,” said Seeran.

While Naicker’s statement reflects a crime of passion, Shah rejected the statement, saying the violence against Munsamy showed a pattern of escalation and that Naicker had planned to murder her.

“We seek to prove the accused was a violent individual who stalked the deceased,” said Shah.

Judge Gregory Kruger ruled that a plea of not guilty would be entered and the state would have to prove its case. The trial continues on Monday.

Independent on Saturday

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