Cape Town - The mother of murdered 12-year-old Michaela Williams, Beatrice Adams has waited for the day justice is served.
And now, Adams remains hopeful that there will be no more delays in the sentencing of Steven Fortune – the man who murdered her daughter.
Fortune has been convicted of murder, and the trial will resume in the Western Cape High Court on Friday, February 12.
Last month, he appeared in court, and the case was postponed for sentencing procedures. Fortune had previously been convicted of child rape and attempted murder.
Adams said she couldn’t bring herself to sit in court in December when Fortune’s statement was read out along with the gruesome details of how her daughter was murdered.
She said: “I was not in court. I was at court, but I felt it would be best not to hear what he says because I still can’t deal with it. I didn’t want to hear anything that he had to say.
“It is heartbreaking for a mother to hear what her child had to go through. It was shocking and heartbreaking.”
Now Adams said she hoped that there were not any further court delays: “It’s been very disappointing, as you know we have always wanted this thing done and going to court every time makes it more stressful. My question is: when is this going to end?” She added: “For as long as this court case is dragged out, we cannot come to terms with it, so we also want to move on with our lives, not that we want to forget – just this going to court all feels for nothing.”
Michaela disappeared from her Crane Street home in Pelican Park on January 7 last year and when police questioned Fortune the next day he led them to the teenager’s body in 9th Avenue in Schaapkraal, Philippi.
On the anniversary of Michaela’s death last month, the community gathered to support her mother. “It was very sad, but it actually brought a lot of the community members together again. I thought – okay, it's been a year nobody will remember, but during the week of the passing of Michaela, a lot of community members came to the house to ask what am I going to do and what is it that I need help with and the day went off beautifully.”
A memorial was set up, and the family were able to pay tribute to Michaela.
Adams said it hasn’t been easy for her and the family because they want to treasure their memories of Michaela: “A lot of people’s memories started to fade and it’s just like another child murder, and here we as a family are trying to find solutions on how to cope. Hopefully, once this case is over and done with, we as a family would like to go for counselling just to get a start on how to deal with things because it’s been hectic.”
She said the sooner the court case is complete, the better it would be for all her loved ones: “It’s court in and court out. We didn’t really get a chance to deal with things, so that is our main focus as soon as this is done, to try and help ourselves.”
Weekend Argus