Farm killer: judge throws away the key

Published Sep 20, 2002

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Although it was unpleasant to sentence a young man with his future ahead to life in prison, the unpleasantness started to fade away when one had regard to the fact that practically every day courts were faced with youthful offenders who committed gruesome crimes.

This was said in the Pietermaritzburg High Court by Judge Moleko (sitting with two assessors) before he sentenced 22-year-old Simon Mbatha to life imprisonment for the murder of Mooi River farmer Huntley Kirby in December 2000; to 15 years imprisonment for robbery with aggravating circumstances; to five years in prison for kidnapping; to five years in prison for unlawful possession of firearms and to two years in prison for unlawful possession of ammunition.

Kirby's body was retrieved from the bottom of a cliff at Molweni, near Hillcrest, last April.

The judge said he had also considered the pain and anguish that Kirby and those close to him must have suffered. It was a tragic way for a man of 75 to end his life.

The killing of elderly people was condemned in the strongest terms by society, he said.

The murder of farmers was on the increase.

"A number of measures have been undertaken and put in place by farmers themselves and the government to try and quell this spate of offences. But these efforts do not seem to have arrested the spate of offences."

The judge said the illegal possession of arms and ammunition was also very serious and prevalent. Courts heard daily of their use to commit serious and gruesome crimes.

Moleko congratulated the investigating team, in particular the investigating officer, Inspector Robin Mays of the Pietermaritzburg Murder and Robbery Unit, for their thorough investigation of the case and said if all cases were similarly investigated it would "make the work of the courts easy".

He also congratulated Constable Jean Marcel du Plessis of Durban Metro police who arrested Mbatha "by chance" when he became suspicious of him after stopping him while he was driving Kirby's stolen bakkie.

"If it were not for him, it is possible we would not be here today," the judge said.

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