Murder accused was an ‘unloved’ child

Mark Ramdass

Mark Ramdass

Published Apr 29, 2016

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Duban - The mother of murder accused Donovan Mark Ramdass, who is charged with killing his girlfriend, says her son felt neglected and unloved by her and his father in childhood.

Ramdass is charged with the murder of Merebank woman Ashika Singh and robbery with aggravating circumstances in connection with a March 2014 incident.

While Ramdass has pleaded not guilty, he has said in a plea statement that he believed that no one but him could have committed the murder; however, he did not remember the crime.

He said he drank alcohol and smoked crack cocaine on the day of the murder.

Ramdass’s advocate, Mondli Qulo, has told the court that his client may have committed the crimes because of emotional stress due to his childhood combined with his intoxicated state.

Singh was found strangled in her bedroom of the home she shared with her mother and Ramdass and had a plastic bag over her head.

A courtesy car that had been on loan to Singh was found in the Point area after the murder, and Ramdass handed himself over to police two days later. He has been in custody since March 2014.

Ramdass’s mother, Pamela Govender, testified on Thursday that she left Ramdass in the care of her parents when he was 15 months old and relocated to Pietermaritzburg, where she remarried and had a daughter. She said she had an estranged relationship with her son.

“He wrote me a letter when he was 16 and told me he felt I was never a mother to him. He felt I had favoured my daughter from my second marriage and had no time for him.”

She also said Ramdass did not have a relationship with his father, who was an alcoholic and drug addict and was living in Johannesburg.

She also testified that she had spoken to Ramdass before he handed himself over to police and had asked him about the murder.

“He told me that he took the courtesy car and I said, I am talking about Ashika being strangled.” All he could talk about was how much he loved her.” Govender told the court she got the impression that Ramdass had not been aware of the murder when she spoke to him.

She said she had been told by her parents about Ramdass’s use of drugs and alcohol and that it had been suspected that he had stolen some of his grandmother’s jewellery.

She also said she was not aware of any incidents in which her son had been violent.

The trial continues.

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The Mercury

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