Man in dock for setting mom-in-law alight

Published Jan 28, 2015

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Johannesburg - ”I hate him. I feel like my pulse starts to race whenever I see him… His children don’t want to see him, they don’t trust him anymore,” said Cecilia Schaper, the wife of a man who is set to plead guilty to murdering his invalid mother-in-law by setting her on fire.

Schaper’s mother Brenda Hedges had been living with her daughter and son-in-law Roland Bosman at their small home in Sophiatown, Joburg, for years, along with the couple’s five children and Schaper’s sister Lucille.

While Cecilia and Lucille had complained to the police about Bosman’s alleged physical abuse over several months in 2013, they expected to get help once Cecilia was finally able to secure a protection order against him.

The abused wife wanted to retake control of her life, and managed to file for divorce.

But her striving for independence resulted in tragedy for the family, with the threats from Bosman allegedly turning more and more violent.

According to the family’s combined affidavit, when the protection order was served on Bosman in August, he arrived at the family home, tore up the document and threatened to “burn the house down with everyone in it”.

In separate incidents over the following months, he allegedly threatened to kill the family, attacked Lucille with a kitchen knife and used a firearm to try to intimidate them.

While the two sisters - and their family lawyer, advocate Cathy Welsch - approached the police as many as nine times to report Bosman’s breach of the protection order, officers at Sophiatown police station apparently refused to help.

Finally, on November 10, 2013, Bosman arrived at the house, went into Hedges’s bedroom, doused her with petrol and struck a match.

Unable to leave her bed, the flames engulfed her until a neighbour put out the fire.

Cecilia, her son Christopher and daughter Nicole, and the siblings’ aunt Lucille were all in the house at the time, and witnessed paramedics trying to save the elderly woman.

On Tuesday, in the high court in Joburg sitting in Palm Ridge, Bosman appeared in the dock for the first time in months.

While his trial was set to start this week, prosecutor Debbie Zinn disclosed on Tuesday that the defence had asked for a Section 105 plea deal as Bosman was willing to plead guilty to the charges of arson and murder.

It is understood the defence proposed a sentence of 18 years for Bosman, but the State would be uncompromising in its bid for nothing less than a life sentence.

Judge Jan Hiemstra told defence lawyer Justice Mogotsi he was not willing to tolerate any “playing for time” if it were a ploy by the defence as he wanted the matter finalised speedily.

The case was postponed to Friday to consult the Schaper family and for a decision to be taken on whether the deal was acceptable to the Director of Public Prosecutions.

Lucille told The Star that a life sentence was paramount, and anything less than 25 years would be an insult.

“He thinks he’s winning,” said Lucille, who believed that the plea deal did not come out of a sense of guilt, but rather an attempt to reduce Bosman’s sentence.

She added that she was unhappy with the State’s decision to drop the attempted murder charge against Bosman for the knife incident, as it had been very traumatic.

Cecilia said that if her husband received a life sentence, she could begin to move on from her mother’s death and finalise her divorce, in order to escape the worst years of her life.

The Schaper family are suing the police for more than R770 000 for allegedly refusing to help them.

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The Star

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