Man gets 25 years for girlfriend’s murder

A 43-YEAR-old Prieska man has been sentenced to an effective 25 years’ imprisonment after he was found guilty of murdering his girlfriend, who was found dead the morning after he beat her up so badly that the judge described the photographs of her injuries as “too ghastly to view”.

Neville van Staden, who has a five-page list of previous convictions, murdered his girlfriend, Nancy Johanne Jas, in the Plakkerskamp in Prieska on the night of December 4, 2015. Van Staden was found guilty of murder, assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and two counts of common assault in December.

Jas was found dead in the house she shared with Van Staden the day after he allegedly assaulted her by hitting her and strangling her.

Delivering the sentence, Judge Mpho Mamosebo, said it was trite that the triad, comprising the personal circumstances of the accused, the nature and seriousness of the offences as well as the interests of the society, had to be taken into consideration when imposing sentence.

“The accused has a catalogue of previous convictions, comprising five pages, which, on the face of it, may show a propensity for criminality but more pertinently violence. He had his first clash with the law in 1990 and his last conviction and sentence was on September 17, 2015. He has one previous conviction of rape.”

Judge Mamosebo pointed out that in this case, Van Staden had been convicted of murder with direct intent.

“The cause of death was asphyxiation due to strangulation, as well as the consequences of multiple assault injuries. The doctor had already confirmed that the deceased had no chance of survival after sustaining such injuries. All the deceased’ s ribs were fractured. The accused cannot stand before court and claim that with such extensive use of blunt force that broke all ribs, caused sub-cutaneous bruising of the scalp on both sides, a laceration in the upper lobe of the right lung, a pulpified left lung, as well as the pulpification of the right lobe of the liver, plus strangulation intention was not to kill the deceased.”

Judge Mamosebo imposed life imprisonment for the charge of murder, 12 months’ imprisonment for each of the two charges of common assault and two years for the charge of assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm. – DFA