Wife-killer gets 16 years in prison
Family of woman beaten to death with rock not happy with ‘light’ sentence but ‘must accept it to move on’
The father of a woman who was bludgeoned to death by her husband expressed dismay on Friday when a Port Elizabeth High Court judge sentenced the convicted killer to 16 years in prison.
Manie de Goeda, 72, said after judge Irma Schoeman sentenced Dene Stebuys, 42, for the murder of his wife Marilyn, 36, that he was not happy with the jail term imposed.
“She was my everything. I am not happy with the sentence, it is too light.
“She was only 36 when she died – she was tortured,” De Goeda said.
Handing down sentence, Schoeman said she had to take into account not only the interests of the community and ensure justice was served, but also had to consider the personal circumstances of the accused.
Stebuys was convicted in November of the brutal 2016 murder of his wife – for which Schoeman said that in her view he should be sentenced to 18 years but that she had to take into account that he had been in custody as an awaiting-trial prisoner for two years.
“Would-be [women and child abuse] offenders are not deterred [by sentences].
“This cannot only be dealt with by the courts. It demands a structured attack by various structures in society,” she said.
Schoeman said it was of great concern that recent data by the World Health Organisation showed SA had one of the highest rates of femicide, with 12.1 deaths in every 100,000 related to men murdering women.
“This is almost five times the global average of 2.1 deaths in every 100,000,” she said.
“A woman is killed every four hours and intimate femicide occurs every eight hours.”
She dismissed Stebuys’s defence advocate Elzabet Theron’s suggestion that Stebuys murdered his wife of 16 years in a blind rage when he found her with the man he suspected her of having an affair with.
“[Stebuys] showed no remorse, was not under the influence of alcohol and has been convicted of murder with direct intent to kill.
“[Stebuys] has not said under what circumstances he killed [Marilyn].
“There is no indication of extreme stress [and] he has denied any wrongdoing despite overwhelming evidence against him,” Schoeman said.
During his protracted trial Stebuys had put his own children through immense stress by forcing them to testify against him more than once, she said.
While handing down sentence Schoeman detailed how Marilyn was repeatedly beaten with a rock by Stebuys after he found her walking in a field in Humansdorp on June 5 2016.
Two teenagers walked past while he was hitting Marilyn with a rock. At one stage he placed a jacket over her head.
Stebuys claimed he had seen Marilyn in the field in the company of Jonathan Gabani, who he suspected was having an affair with his wife.
According to Stebuys, he and Gabani tussled and in the process Marilyn was knocked on the nose, which started bleeding. Stebuys and Marilyn then went back home before she left the house, he said/
Stebuys was convicted of murder, three counts of common assault and contravening the provisions of a protection order Marilyn had obtained two weeks before the attack.
Schoeman sentenced Stebuys to six months for each of the assault charges, five years for contravening a protection order and 16 years for murder.
The sentences will run concurrently. Marilyn’s aunt, Christine Ruiters, 58, said the family would have to accept the sentence in order to move on.
“[It] should have been a bit more harsh – he deserves a life sentence because of the pain and suffering he has caused and because he made [Marilyn] out to look bad.
“Yes, it hurts but we need to move on,” Ruiters said.
Theron told the court Stebuys intended to bring an application for leave to appeal against his conviction.
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