The welfare of the children of convicted wife-killer Dene Stebuys will first need to be investigated before sentencing proceedings can commence, the Port Elizabeth High Court heard on Tuesday.
Stebuys, 42, was convicted on Monday of the brutal murder of his wife, Marilyn, 38, as well as the assault on her, her friend Jonathan Gabani and his 16-year-old son.
Sentencing proceedings were expected to begin on Tuesday but judge Irma Schoeman said the social welfare reIt port finalised on May 24 2017 was outdated.
Schoeman said it was of paramount importance that the welfare of Stebuys’s three biological and one adopted child be established first.
This was after it emerged during court proceedings that Marilyn had opened a case of indecent assault against a male relative of Stebuys in 2012.
was alleged the man had molested a young girl whose age has not been disclosed to the court.
State prosecutor advocate Ishmet Cerfontein told the court she had obtained the police docket, opened on November 29 2012, and had in her possession a withdrawal statement penned by Marilyn.
The information about the alleged abuse and the reason why Marilyn withdrew the charge on April 19 2014 was not disclosed to the court.
“There is an indication that the matter was withdrawn [but] there is nothing else attached to the charge sheet,” Cerfontein said.
During their 16-year-old son’s testimony it emerged that, after the children had been placed in the care of their paternal grandfather, they moved in with an uncle because they were not being looked after properly.
They have since been staying with their maternal grandfather.
Schoeman said she was under the impression a social welfare report would have been available on Tuesday, adding that the 2017 report was too dated to determine the children’s welfare.
Cerfontein told the court she had arranged witnesses for the state to testify regarding the wellbeing of the children but Schoeman dismissed this, saying that a new social welfare report had to be compiled to determine where would be best for the children to live.
The matter was postponed to December 5 for the report to be finalised before sentencing.