Aroab strangler sent to jail for 14 years

WINDHOEK, 09 Apr – A farmworker found guilty of strangling his girlfriend to death on a farm in the Aroab area in the //Kharas Region in 2014, has been sent to jail for 14 years.
Willem Freddy Eksteen was on 28 February 2018 found guilty of strangling his 19-year-old girlfriend, Janetta Babiep, to death at Farm Warmfontein on 21 September 2014.
He was found guilty on a charge of murder with direct intent to kill and his case is being dealt with in terms of the provisions of the Combating of Domestic Violence Act of 2003, which calls for a long custodial sentence upon conviction.
The 22-year-old Eksteen was on Monday sentenced to 20 years imprisonment, of which six years were suspended for a period of five years on condition that he is not found guilty of murder during the period of suspension.
High Court Judge Dinah Usiku handed down the sentence.
“You cut the life of an innocent young lady short when you killed her for reasons only known to yourself. You were alone with the deceased in the room at the time of her death. This was a brutal offence against a defenceless young woman,” she said.
In her pre-sentencing evidence, State Advocate Felistas Shikerete-Vendura wanted the court to impose a life sentence or 30 years imprisonment.
On his part, Eksteen’s State-funded defence lawyer, Milton Engelbrecht asked the court for a sentence of less than 20 years imprisonment, of which part of the punishment should be suspended because of the youthfulness of his client.
In his evidence-in-chief during the trial, Eksteen vehemently denied killing Babiep, claiming that the deceased took her own life by hanging herself in the room.
However, his claims of suicide were rejected by the court as false and mere afterthought in order for him to evade prosecution.
Eksteen and the deceased were involved in a romantic relationship at the time of her death and the two had a minor child together.
He serves his prison sentence at the Windhoek Central Correctional Facility.
NAMPA