A wave goodbye and a seemingly sincere “thank you” to the media were the final gestures of former lovers Nicolette Lotter and Mathew Naidoo as they left the Durban High Court to start serving their sentences at Westville Prison.
Naidoo said he was not happy with the two life sentences handed to him by Judge Shyam Gyanda on Monday.
When asked what he planned on doing with his time in prison, Naidoo said: “I plan to appeal. Let the appeal go through then you’ll know how I feel.”
Gyanda, last week found Naidoo and the Lotter siblings guilty of the murders of the siblings’ parents, Johan and Riekie Lotter, at their Westville home in July 2008.
On Monday, he sentenced Naidoo to two life sentences. They will run concurrently and Naidoo will be eligible for parole after serving 25 years.
Gyanda sentenced Nicolette to 12 years on each count, also to run concurrently with the possibility of parole after 10 years.
Hardus got 10 years for each of the murders, the sentences to run concurrently. He will be eligible for parole after six years.
For now, it is only the man labelled the mastermind of the murders, who has indicated he will appeal against his sentence.
Should his application for leave to appeal fail, Vijay Sivakumoor, Naidoo’s lawyer, said Naidoo would then petition the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Appeal.
Hardus’s advocate, Roland Parsotham, indicated that his client would not appeal against the sentence as he originally thought he would have to spend the rest of his life behind bars.
“He was quite ecstatic when he heard the sentence and welcomed the decision,” Parsotham said.
Advocate Theuns Botha said Nicolette was “still thinking it over”. “She hasn’t made up her mind yet. If she does appeal, it would just be against the sentence and not the conviction. If she does appeal, she would have to bear in mind the possibility of a harsher sentence,” he said.
Their elder sibling, Christelle Lotter, who has never attended the trial nor visited her brother or sister, was still not ready to talk to them, said her Cape Town-based lawyer Piet Mathee. “Everything is still so unreal and incomprehensible to her. She accepts the sentence and glad it’s come to this point where it’s been finalised,” he said.
Mathee said Christelle had been aware that her uncle, Reverend Willem Lotter, a minister of 25 years who preaches at the Omega Church in Cape Town, would be testifying in mitigation of sentence on Nicolette’s behalf.
While the minister and his sister, police officer Antoinette Lotter, have forgiven Nicolette and Hardus, Christelle is not at the point where she is ready to speak to them.
“Yes, her parents’ murder made it impossible to continue her studies in Stellenbosch. She is just taking things one step at a time. She still has no answers about her parents’ death,” Mathee said.
Christelle is now the sole beneficiary to her parents’ estate. There was a civil application which her siblings’ lodged for their part of the inheritance to be used for legal fees and to hire expert witnesses which failed, and the decision of whether or not Nicolette and Hardus would inherit was pending the outcome of the trial.
Gyanda’s sentencing, like his judgment, focused mainly on Naidoo and his firm belief that Naidoo controlled the siblings.
“There is something wrong with (Naidoo) mentally. He has shown no remorse and I can’t agree he’s an ideal candidate for rehabilitation. His lawyer spoke of him growing up alone but (Naidoo) testified that he lived in a home with his extended family.
“His mother’s statement also refers to the uncles and aunts he lived with. There is nothing that would amount to substantial and compelling circumstances to deviate from the prescribed sentence,” he said.
He referred to Naidoo as being mature beyond his years and a person who “knew it all”. “He portrayed an arrogance second to none and believed everyone else was stupid. Hence his mocking letters to the (Lotters) and the police. He is a cunning and conniving man,” Gyanda said.
Referring to Nicolette, he believed money was not her prime motivating force as she had told Naidoo he could have her share of her inheritance.
He believed she suffered from battered woman syndrome, as diagnosed by clinical psychologist Professor Lourens Schlebusch.
“Part of her abuse was that she was forced to drink (Naidoo’s) urine. If she stooped to such levels to obey him, she would do anything to please him.”
Gyanda said both Hardus and Nicolette acted with “diminished responsibility”. He felt they should be punished, though, as “society would be aghast if they got away with a slap on the wrist” referring to correctional supervision.
“Like-minded people must also be deterred (from committing such crimes),” he said before stipulating the punishment.