A Polokwane mother cried bitterly and clung to her new fiancé as she was led down to the holding cells at the Pretoria High Court on Monday to start serving a 15-year prison sentence murdering her previous fiancé.
Judge Ismail Mohamed rejected Yvonne Beetge’s evidence that “the love of her life” Bokkie Grundlingh shot himself after reading a suicide note to her.
The judge found it was not Grundlingh who had typed the “suicide note full of spelling errors”.
He also found Grundlingh did not commit suicide by shooting himself three times – in the right side of his face and abdomen, and in the left side of his head.
While the first two wounds could possibly have been the work of the right-handed Grundlingh, as claimed by Beetge, the State’s experts were adamant that the third shot – fired from the left-hand side – could not have been his doing, the judge found.
Another peculiar aspect was that the “suicide note”, which Beetge said Grundlingh placed on the floor with a picture of his family shortly before “committing suicide”, did not have a speck of blood on it, while the picture had blood splatterings.
Grundlingh’s long-standing doctor testified he was meticulous in his grammar and spelling, yet simple words in the letter were misspelled.
Judge Mohamed commented that the suicide letter had probably been intended to mislead the authorities, and said it had nearly succeeded.
Beetge was arrested only after the doctor who performed the post-mortem expressed the opinion that Grundlingh had not committed suicide, and a special task team began investigating the case.
Although the court found beyond reasonable doubt that Beetge was responsible for Grundlingh’s death when he was shot in the couple’s bedroom in November 2008, it was none the wiser about what happened or why.
“I am still in the dark as to what the motive for the killing was. Why did she do it?” the judge said.
Something must have sparked the events and the only one who knew the details was Beetge, he said.
Beetge’s testimony did not shed light on the events and she opted not to testify in mitigation of sentence, saying she was “too traumatised”.
Through her lawyer, she maintained her innocence to the end. Her version was that Grundlingh, a former soldier who fought in Angola, had terrible nightmares. He often walked around the house brandishing his firearm, thereby threatening everyone’s life around him.
Judge Mohamed said it was “astounding” that Beetge had not sought help for Grundlingh’s nightmares and had not reported to anyone that he walked around the house with his firearm.
According to Beetge, the couple were watching war movies on the night of the shooting. Grundlingh suddenly fetched his firearm after reading the suicide note to her.
She said she tried to wrest the weapon from him, when two shots went off. By the time the third shot was fired, she had closed her eyes.
Beetge was at a loss to explain how Grundlingh could have shot himself from the left side, when he was right-handed.
While sentencing Beetge, the judge was outraged when he was told she had been kept for more than four months in a Polokwane police cell in which she was exposed to the elements.
The defence told the judge that the cell did not have a roof, and her children had to provide a canvas cover so she could protect herself from the sun and the rain.
There was often no food at the police station and her children had to bring food for Beetge, the judge heard.
Her lawyer, after four months and an urgent application, managed to obtain bail on her behalf.
These facts were confirmed by the State, which said the police station was being refurbished at the time. Beetge had initially been refused bail because she was a suicide risk, the State said.
“I am amazed by what I heard… I find it disturbing. She appears to have been put in a cage like an animal,” the visibly upset judge said. He questioned how this could happen in a country with a constitution such as South Africa’s.
He said Beetge’s human rights had clearly been infringed. This contributed to her being given a lesser sentence than the 20 years sought by the State.
The defence said it might apply for leave to appeal on Monday. - Pretoria News