Pretoria - A man who severely injured his girlfriend’s 6-week-old baby by holding him against the dry ice in his refrigerator and hitting him repeatedly with a spatula was this week sentenced in the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, to an effective eight years’ imprisonment.
Judge Papi Mosopa sentenced Gerhard Viljoen to a total of 10 years’ imprisonment, but he ordered that two years of this sentence be suspended for five years. The result is an effective eight years.
He was found guilty of assault with the intent to do grievous bodily harm of his ex-girlfriend’s baby, who was merely 6 weeks old in October 2020 when the crime was committed.
Viljoen admitted that he held the baby against the dry ice in his refrigerator and that he caused various other injuries to the infant.
Among them, he admitted that he had repeatedly hit the baby with an open hand and spatula over his entire body.
The biological mother of the victim has not been accused yet, because she is still a minor.
AfriForum’s Private Prosecution Unit acted in accordance with a watching brief in this case.
The unit, during a media conference in July 2021, announced its involvement in the case as well as three other cases of child abuse.
The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) initially, despite overwhelming evidence, withdrew the charges against the accused in the Brits Magistrate’s Court.
After the unit made representations to the Director of Public Prosecutions in Gauteng and indicated that it would privately prosecute Viljoen, prosecution was instituted and transferred to the case to the high court.
Viljoen subsequently pleaded guilty and entered into a plea agreement with the State. The J88 of the baby (the official document in which the injuries were recorded by the doctor) contained a list of 12 injuries.
Apart from admitting to burning the baby with ice and hitting him with an open hand and spatula, he also admitted that on another occasion he had hit the baby with his fist.
He, however, said this was by mistake as he wanted to hit the baby’s mother.
She was kneeling over the infant at the time.
He admitted that he should have foreseen that he could hit and injure the baby at the time.
The NPA is considering charges against the biological mother of the baby, because she allegedly admitted to a kindergarten teacher that she had put her baby in the deep freezer if he cried too much, AfriForum said.
“We welcome the sentences against Viljoen, as cases of violence against women and children ought to be prioritised. We also want to congratulate the prosecutor on the successful prosecution of Viljoen.
“We, however, remain concerned about the state of prosecution in the Brits Magistrate’s Court where this case was initially struck off the roll,” said Natasha Venter, adviser at AfriForum’s Private Prosecution Unit.
Another case initially struck from the roll at the lower court, but where charges were reinstated, was that of the parents of an infant girl who had suffered about 33 fractures.
The parents, who cannot be identified, so as to safeguard the child, also injured her during 2020.
The baby was only 2 months old when she landed in hospital for the first time, with various fractures. By the time she landed in hospital for the second time, at 5-months-old, she had more than 33 fractures across her body.
In this case the parents denied any knowledge of how she had sustained the injuries.
The court, however, convicted both parents of assault with the intent to do grievous bodily harm.
The pair are due to be sentenced next week.
Pretoria News