Cape Town – Convicted child rapist and murderer Mortimer Saunders had fears of being poisoned – even by his own mother.
Saunders, who was found guilty of the rape and premeditated murder of 3-year-old Courtney Pieters, appeared at the Western Cape High Court yesterday.
He had used ant poison on the toddler, claiming that he wanted to get back at her mother, Juanita Pieters, against whom he had harboured ill feelings.
It emerged in court while the State and defence presented their mitigation and aggravation arguments, that Saunders, a father of three, was paranoid that he would be poisoned by his own mother, aunt and a former girlfriend.
According to probation officer Jeremy Kessie, who took the stand, Saunders was also paranoid that Juanita would poison his room.
Courtney’s father, Aaron Fourie, said they wanted him to serve two life sentences.
“We are still very hurt by the trauma caused. It hurts even more because he was a childhood friend of mine that did this to my child. I just have one question for him and that is: Why my child?
“We would like him to be sentenced accordingly so that we can start healing as a family. We will never forget Courtney but we want to move on with our lives.
"It hurts the most at night when we go to bed and you think about her not being there anymore,” said Fourie.
Social worker Evelyn Torode, who also took the stand, said she had counselling sessions with the family. She said Courtney’s sibling needed urgent counselling after she was found to be “bullying others and acting out”.
According to a report compiled by Torode, the teenager blames herself for what happened to her sister. Torode’s report also contained a document where Juanita wrote about how she felt following the death of her daughter.
“Juanita is struggling to come to terms with (the death of Courtney). She said she wanted the court to decide (the appropriate sentence) but her last words to me was ‘God does not rest',” Torode said.
Outside court, Juanita said: “It’s not nice having to come back to court every time to sit and hear the things my baby had to go through. It hurts. We want this to be over,” she said.
The case was postponed to December 11.