Mother angry after son’s killer ‘walks free’
A KWADUKUZA mother does not believe justice was served, after one of three men accused of assaulting and killing her son received a suspeded sentence.
Dillon Puckree, 24, of Glenhills, was allegedly punched and repeatedly kicked by a group of men, outside a pub, on September 9, 2017.
Puckree, a taxi-conductor, later died in hospital.
Ruvaal Mudali, 22, Preston Naidoo, 24, and a third accused, then 17, were arrested and charged with the killing.
The teenager cannot be named, as he was a minor at the time of the incident.
In January this year, Naidoo, who was previously charged with murder, pleaded guilty to assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm.
He said he learnt of Puckree’s death the following day and, on September 12, he handed himself over to the police.
“It was never my intention to murder the deceased,” he told the court at the time.
In the Durban Regional Court on Friday, Naidoo was sentenced to three years in jail. The sentence was wholly suspended for five years, on condition that he is not convicted of a similar offence. He also received three years’ correctional supervision, which entails 16 hours of community service per month.
The court ordered that he complete a list of programmes, including anger management, social responsibility and an orientation programme.
Following the sentence, Puckree’s mother, Pushpa, said: “For the past three years, we have attended the court appearances with some hope that those responsible would be punished and go to prison. To hear that one of the accused will walk free, get to be with his family and just have to go for anger courses is sad. Is that the value of a life?”
Mudali and his co-accused are expected to stand trial in December. Naidoo is expected to testify for the State.