Durban - Convicted murderer Nicolette Lotter has become a bride. The wedding ceremony took place at the Westville Prison this month.
Nicolette, 36, is halfway through a 12-year prison sentence.
Pictures of the big day were published by YOU magazine this week. It showed Nicolette dressed in a white gown with flowers on her head.
In the story, the groom, identified as Rian Nortjé from Gauteng, married Nicolette after a short relationship involving phone calls.
Nicolette and her brother Hardus made headlines in 2008 when they killed their parents at their home in Westville, near Durban.
Nicolette stabbed their mother Maria Magdalena “Riekie”, 52, while Hardus, strangled their father Johannes Petrus “Johnny”, 53, with an electrical cord while asleep.
The Lotter siblings pointed to Mathew Naidoo, 31, as the mastermind behind the double-murder.
Naidoo, the self-proclaimed “third son of God”, was in a relationship with Nicolette and was sentenced to life for his part in the murders.
Provincial spokesperson for the Department of Correctional Services, Thulani Mdluli, confirmed the wedding took place within the state facility.
Mdluli said the couple were allowed a maximum of eight guests and guidelines were provided for photographs to be taken during and after the wedding.
“The department bears no cost for the above,” he said.
When contacted for comment, Nortjé declined to speak to the Sunday Tribune.
Former Sunday Tribune journalist, Vivian Attwood, who covered the murder and subsequent trial, was described in the YOU story as a friend who walked the bride down the aisle.
Hardus, 30, did not attend the wedding.
Nor did a third sibling.
Hardus was released on parole in March this year. He is under house arrest for the remainder of his 10-year sentence which was given to him in 2012.
Pastor Danny Israel, who has been caring for Hardus since his arrest in 2008, confirmed Hardus did not attend the wedding.
He said he hoped Nicolette had made the right choice.
“The whole court case, the whole thing that happened with them, was due to her bad choices”.
Nicolette and her husband will have to continue their relationship through phone calls and visits watched over by prison authorities for the next two years, until which time she will become eligible for parole.