Cape Town - The prosecution said it is time for convicted murderer Reghard Groenewald to pay for the crime he committed and that if the court evaluates all factors, the only appropriate sentence is a long-term imprisonment.
This was the argument by state advocate Evadne Kortje during the submission of heads of argument in sentencing in the Western Cape High Court last week. The state wants a sentence in excess of the prescribed period of 15 years.
Groenewald was told by Judge Derek Wille to finalise his affairs and prepare to spend time in jail when he returns for sentencing in two weeks.
Groenewald was convicted in May by Judge Wille on a charge of murder and theft. Hilary van Rooyen’s body was found lying in a pool of blood behind the front door of her home on May 9, 2017.
Groenewald, who had pleaded not guilty, said she had attempted to sexually assault him by pushing her breasts close to his chest and grabbing his buttocks. He claimed that she threatened to tell his friends that he tried to sexually violated her and in panic hit her with the nearest object, a glass vase.
Kortje said: “The action of the accused after he left the scene, how he got rid of the evidence linking him to the crime are indicative of a dangerous person. “The circumstances of this case and the aggravating circumstances are so extreme that it outweighs the accused person circumstances and the mitigating circumstances. The state respectfully submits that the prescribed minimum sentence would be woefully inappropriate.”
SA National Institute for Crime Prevention and the Reintegration of Offenders social worker Arina Smit, in giving evidence in mitigation of sentence, said Groenewald presented a low risk of re-offending. She recommended seven years of jail, of which two years should be suspended.
But the state submitted that during Smit’s evidence and from the report her bias towards the accused cannot be excused. Groenewald will be sentenced on August 29.