Jason Rohde's friend pleads for 'fair' sentence for sake of children

Published Feb 18, 2019

Share

Cape Town - A friend of convicted wife killer Jason Rohde asked the Western Cape High Court on Monday to sentence him with "fairness and empathy".

Testifying in mitigation of sentence, David Craig Livingstone, told the court that he had been friends with Rohde since 2015.

“A long sentence would be extremely harmful and destructive for his three girls that he loves dearly,” he said.

Asked by defence advocate Graham van der Spuy if he would like to add anything in mitigation of Rohde’s sentence, he said: “I will just ask the court that Jason will be sentenced in the interest of fairness and empathy.”

The sentencing proceedings of Rohde resumed on Monday after the trial adjourned on December 6. Rohde, who was convicted in November last year, spent Christmas in Pollsmoor prison after his bail application, pending sentence, was denied by Judge Gayaat Salie-Hlophe.

The former Lew Geffen Sotheby’s International CEO was found guilty of murdering his wife Susan Rohde and obstructing the ends of justice by staging her suicide. Susan’s body was found in a locked bathroom in a room she shared with Rohde on July 24, 2016, at the Spier Wine Estate Hotel in Stellenbosch. Her body was found with an electronic cord wrapped around her neck. The cord had been tied to a hook on the back of the bathroom door.

African News Agency (ANA)

Related Topics: