CAPE TOWN - A 31-year-old man from East London has been found guilty of the murder of his estranged wife in the Eastern Cape High Court.
Carl Joe Abrahams was further found guilty for breaching conditions of an interim protection order.
The father perpetrated the murder in front of his six-year-old son.
At the time of the murder, Abrahams and his 26-year-old wife, Angelique Clarke-Abrahams, were separated.
The court heard the couple’s marriage was characterised by domestic violence, and shortly before her death on August 20, 2019, Angelique obtained an interim protection order against Abrahams.
On the morning of the incident, Abrahams arrived at his estranged wife’s apartment, where he was accompanied by their son.
He instructed the child to hide behind a cupboard and pushed Angelique onto a couch.
In a frantic state, the child ran out of the apartment and screamed for help from neighbours who threatened to call the police.
The court heard the landlord called the police and ambulance services.
Angelique was rushed to hospital but never regained consciousness and died days later.
The post-mortem results revealed the young mother died from a brain injury due to strangling.
Last month, the couple’s son, who is now eight years old, took the stand and testified that his father told him he was going to break his mother’s neck and bury her.
Abrahams rubbished his son’s testimony, but the child remained adamant his testimony was true.
The Director of Public Prosecutions, Barry Madolo, commended the police and the prosecutor, Senior State Advocate Nickie Turner for skilfully executing their duties in investigating and prosecuting the matter, respectively.
He further highlighted the significant work done by the investigation teams by being mindful of the sensitivity of this femicide case because not only did Abrahams rob Angelique of her life, but he did so in the presence of an innocent child.
“They not only represented the victims but the interest of society at large as femicide is a plight which must be uprooted from our society,” Madolo said.
The case has been postponed until December 20 for sentencing.