Cape Town - Moorreesburg father Godfrey Jantjies has been acquitted of the murder of his child, Robyn-Lee Gertse.
Jantjies was found not guilty in the Western Cape High Court on Thursday.
He was charged with the murder of the 3-year-old who was found dead on the morning of May 24, 2015.
The State had set out to prove that he abused the child by assaulting her and exposing her to behaviour that harmed her psychologically or emotionally.
The cause of death was described as blunt force trauma to the abdomen, and at the time of her death her body was bruised and battered. Her jaw was fractured, and there were bruises on her head, mouth, around her eye and on her chest.
The State alleged that Jantjies had inflicted a pattern of abuse, which resulted in her untimely death.
After consideration of all the evidence from the State advocate Leon Snyman and defence counsel advocate Omar Arend, Western Cape High Court judge Vincent Saldanha concluded that the State was unable to find Jantjies responsible for the girl’s death, but found him guilty of neglect.
Evidence showed that the injury which caused the child’s death could have been caused before May 24, and because she was in other people’s homes before her death, the injuries could not exclusively be linked to Jantjies, the judge said.
Regarding the negligence of Jantjies, Judge Saldanha said: “The neglect of the child by the accused is exacerbated by his own enthusiasm of rather spending time with his friends drinking, smoking tik throughout the day and continuing in the early hours of the morning, even after he had been sent by Miss Smit to obtain medication for the child.
“The death of the child as a result of injuries to the abdomen could have been prevented had they properly carried out their parental and care-giving responsibilities without their selfish regard for their own desires of partying with friends, when the deceased lay in pain and agony throughout the better part of the day.”
The judge requested that the sentencing court sit in Moorreesburg on May 12, as a message needed to be sent to the community about the severity of the matter.