Cape Town – Child rapist and killer Mortimer Saunders has been denied leave to appeal his conviction and sentence.
After hearing arguments in the Western Cape High Court on Tuesday, Judge Babalwa Pearl Mantame, who last year found father-of-three Saunders guilty of the premeditated murder of 3-year-old Courtney Pieters, said she believed there was no prospect of success on appeal.
Last week, Courtney’s family had reacted in horror on learning of Saunders' appeal bid. Her cousin, Celeste Adonis, said she was horrified when the Daily Voice contacted her for comment.
She said the family is just starting to heal and now all their old wounds opened again.
“We had to read in the news, that this man who took our baby, is going to (appeal to) get a lighter sentence.
“Nobody informed us and Juanita (Courtney’s mother) would have told us if she knew. I am very upset that this is how we found out,” Celeste said.
Saunders had confessed to using ant poison in the murder and to using his fingers to penetrate the 3-year-old after her death.
The judge had sentenced Saunders, a tenant in the house where Courtney and her family lived, to two life sentences and ruled that they run consecutively – not concurrently.
At the start of the trial, Saunders denied that he had planned the toddler's death or that he had raped her while she was alive.
His version was that he had given Courtney ant poison to make her sick before he choked her, beat her and used a towel to cover her mouth.
He claimed he had done it because of "ill feelings" between him and her mother Juanita.