Cape Town - The man accused of beating and burning his ex-girlfriend’s one-year-old daughter to death and then dragging her around like a rag doll while he was high on drugs, has admitted guilt.
A clean-shaven and healthy-looking Peter van Tonder, 37, told the Cape High Court on Friday during his pre-trial, that he wanted to enter into a plea agreement.
State prosecutor, Maria Marshall, informed the court that Van Tonder, who has been in custody since his arrest last September, will be pleading guilty.
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“A 112 plea will be made, it will be a plea of guilty,” she told Judge André le Grange.
Marshall did not indicate what the agreement would entail but asked that the matter be postponed to 9 October.
Peter van Tonder, 37
Van Tonder had been dating little Asheeqah Scott’s mom, Shakiera, 24, for two months before her murder.
On 3 September, at his home in Kalossie Street, Delft, he allegedly burnt and beat the baby.
The little girl was rushed to Red Cross Children’s Hospital, where she was declared brain dead a day later.
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Outside court, Shakiera said she felt “relieved” at her ex’s decision to plead guilty: “To tell you the truth, I feel happy. He must just get a life sentence. When I saw him this morning, I felt like I wanted to kill him.”
A crying granny Farieda Scott, 63, says they are still battling to come to terms with her grandchild’s death.
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“I feel we must go for counselling because I think about her each and every day.”
Aunt Mushfeeka Scott, believes Van Tonder was getting an easy way out.
“I think it is unfair, there should be no bargaining for perpetrators. At the end of the day, what you do wrong, you have to serve for it.”’