A THEMBISA mother, who murdered her 5-year-old son and mutilated his body to make it look like a muthi murder, has been jailed for 18 years
Sentencing Batseba Irene Lekgeu, 27, in the Pretoria high court for the November 2008 murder of her son, Andile, Judge Vivian Tlhapi said she had taken into account that Lekgeu suffered from a major depressive disorder.
This condition had to some extent affected Lekgeu's appreciation of the wrongfulness of her actions. She had also taken into account that Lekgeu was a first-time offender and the mother of two young children who still needed her.
Lekgeu pleaded guilty to her son's murder and told a psychologist she could not forgive herself for what she did, and wished she was dead. She never took the stand to testify in her defence.
In her plea explanation Lekgeu said she had blamed her son for all her problems because her family had rejected her since his father was a known criminal. She also received no support and battled financially.
Her youngest daughter's father refused to marry her because of her son, and she feared he would become a criminal like his father.
Lekgeu admitted wrapping her son in a blanket and taking him to an abandoned house in Nebo, where she stabbed him repeatedly before cutting off his ear and genitals to make it look like a muthi murder.
She confessed to the police on the same day.
Mom jailed for son's murder
A THEMBISA mother, who murdered her 5-year-old son and mutilated his body to make it look like a muthi murder, has been jailed for 18 years
Sentencing Batseba Irene Lekgeu, 27, in the Pretoria high court for the November 2008 murder of her son, Andile, Judge Vivian Tlhapi said she had taken into account that Lekgeu suffered from a major depressive disorder.
This condition had to some extent affected Lekgeu's appreciation of the wrongfulness of her actions. She had also taken into account that Lekgeu was a first-time offender and the mother of two young children who still needed her.
Lekgeu pleaded guilty to her son's murder and told a psychologist she could not forgive herself for what she did, and wished she was dead. She never took the stand to testify in her defence.
In her plea explanation Lekgeu said she had blamed her son for all her problems because her family had rejected her since his father was a known criminal. She also received no support and battled financially.
Her youngest daughter's father refused to marry her because of her son, and she feared he would become a criminal like his father.
Lekgeu admitted wrapping her son in a blanket and taking him to an abandoned house in Nebo, where she stabbed him repeatedly before cutting off his ear and genitals to make it look like a muthi murder.
She confessed to the police on the same day.
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