Father held for murder of daughter

6-month-old girl died of head injuries

A KNYSNA father charged with the murder of his 6-month-old baby girl is expected to apply for bail when he appears before the Knysna Magistrate’s Court next week.

The 31-year-old has been charged with murder after the baby died from head injuries sustained from an alleged assault.

Southern Cape police spokesperson Chris Spies said: “Investigation into this case indicates that the infant was assaulted by the suspect, her father. She sustained serious head injuries and was taken to hospital where she later died. The suspect appeared in the Knysna Magistrate’s Court on Monday on a charge of murder.”

Spies said the matter was postponed to January 6 for a formal bail application.

The infant’s murder comes days after the discovery of slain Allishandre Floors, 16. A relative of the young woman’s mother Elsabe – Francois Thorne, 41 – was arrested last week and confessed to her murder.

Allishandre, who was a pupil at George High School and holidayed in Storms River near Tsitsikamma in the Eastern Cape, was reported missing three days before Christmas.

Thorne was arrested on December 27 and led police to the plantation about 10km outside Storms River, where he allegedly dumped the girl’s body.

Gender-based violence pressure group SA Women Fight Back (SAWFB) have started an online petition to oppose bail for Thorne. The petition has reached almost 2000 signatures.

SAWFB operations committee head Debbie Engelbrecht said they were extremely disturbed by the rising rate of violence against, and murders of, women and children in South Africa.

“All you have to do is Google ‘baby battered to death by father’ and you’re going to find a whole host of articles.

“Clearly, we have a problem that the men in our country are extremely angry and violent. SAWFB will reach out to the mother and family of the murdered infant and start petitioning for this suspect to be refused bail,” Engelbrecht said.

On December 22, police announced that Kuils River detectives charged a 59-year-old with the murder of his son.

The suspect was reported missing with his 12-year-old son in Kuilsriver on November 30.

Police in Van Rhynsdorp, a small town on the West Coast, recognised the father from circulated photographs of the two. He was taken in and transported to Cape Town.

Police said he confessed to killing his son and pointed to where the body was buried near a canal in Soneike, Kuils River.

“Clearly we have a problem that the men in our country are angry Debbie Engelbrecht SA Women Fight Back