Cape Town - The father of murder victim Lee Adams has called for a life sentence for the man accused of beheading his 15-year-old son.
Deon Louw looked like a broken man as he stood on the steps of the Western Cape High Court shortly after final arguments were heard in the case against Aljar Swartz.
“It’s a very sad story. I want to see Swartz get life without parole,” he told African News Agency (ANA).
Describing his son as a friendly, loving child who he misses every day, Louw battled to hold back tears.
Also read: ‘Satanist’ admits he decapitated teen
The teenager’s sister sat dejectedly on the steps, tears streaming down her face, too emotional to speak to the media.
Swartz allegedly beheaded the Ravensmead teenager in 2013, so that he could sell the body parts to a sangoma (traditional healer).
State prosecutor Carine Teunissen earlier told the court the accused did “an about-turn” about a week and a half ago when he admitted to killing and beheading Adams.
In his admission, Swartz said he strangled Adams on 17 October, 2013, then stabbed him numerous times, and finally decapitated him.
A security guard found the body at a school, while the head was later found in a shallow grave buried in the accused’s garden.
Teunissen told the court that the victim was lured to an abandoned school, Florida Primary, under the pretext that they would smoke dagga (marijuana) there together.
She described the killing as “definitely premeditated, definitely planned” and motivated by money.
It’s alleged that Swartz planned to sell the head of his victim to a sangoma for R5 000.
Swartz claimed that he was a satanist at the time of the killing, but Teunissen disputed this and told the court “there is no evidence of a satanistic ritual carried out”.
Teunissen also told the court that Swartz incited four witness to partake in the killing and that was an indication that “he thought the process through”.
Defence lawyer Sheriff Mohamed said his friends never believed he would follow through with his plan to kill Adams, and thought he had simply been “telling stories”.
“They had every opportunity to tell their parents or the police that their friend Lee was about to become a sacrificial lamb.”
Mohamed said “this doesn’t add up to someone who is a coldblooded calculated killer”.
Judge Elize Steyn referred several times to the “distortion of facts” in Mohamed’s heads of argument.
She postponed the case to March 10 for judgement.
African News Agency