Murder accused asks for forgiveness
The man who murdered Cape Town toddler Courtney Pieters apologised to her mother for what he had done, the Western Cape High Court heard yesterday.
Mortimer Saunders at the end of his defence counsel’s questions to Juanita Pieters, the mother of murdered three-year-old Courtney, asked that his counsel tell her that he is sorry for what he had done to her child.
Pieters, after a long pause, and looking right at Saunders, said: “I have forgiven Mortimer but I will never forget.”
On Monday, Saunders had admitted to killing the toddler after giving the child ant poison.
Explaining the presence of the ant poison, Saunders’ defence counsel said the accused did everything in his room and even used it as a kitchen to cook.
However, Juanita replied: “There was never ant problems in the house. The only problem we had were with cockroaches.”
She earlier told the court that she recognised Saunders as the man seen on CCTV footage dumping the body of her daughter but admitted that she denied knowing him as she was in “shock”.
Juanita said when police asked her if she knew the man on footage dumping the girl’s body in nearby Epping Industria, she lied and said she did not recognise him.
She told the court that police had called Saunders to come to the police station and that by this stage she and her boyfriend Aaron Fourie, who is also Courtney’s father, had already seen the footage.
“I was very shocked to see these photos and I lied to Captain Taylor and said I don’t know him,” she said yesterday. “I could not believe it was him because, as we know, he is such a decent person ...” – ANA – ANA