After going through his wife’s mobile phone and discovering that she was having an extra-marital affair, a Free State man tricked her unsuspecting lover into visiting the couple’s home.
Little did the lover know he was walking into a trap where the husband and his friend teamed up to bludgeon him with a hammer and strangle him before dumping his lifeless body into a dam.
The husband, Kelly Sephton,37, and his friend, Raymond Oosthuizen, 45, will now rot in jail for the heinous crime.
The Free State High Court, sitting in Sasolburg, on Friday sentenced the two men to life imprisonment after they were convicted of murdering Rhyno Van Niekerk, 35, and throwing his body into Oranjeville Dam on September 12, 2020.
Detailing the shocking incident, National Prosecuting Authority regional spokesperson Phaladi Shuping said Sephton went through his wife’s phone and found out that she was having an affair with Van Niekerk.
“He assaulted her and confiscated her phone,” said Shuping in a statement.
“He then used his wife’s cellphone to send messages to Van Niekerk (acting) as if the messages were from his wife.
“In one of the messages, he asked Van Niekerk to come to his house. Van Niekerk arrived at Sephton’s home and found Sephton and Oosthuizen.”
The court heard that Sephton and Oosthuizen then assaulted Van Niekerk, hitting him with a hammer on his nose bridge and all over his body.
They then strangled him until he died.
They wrapped his body in a plastic and put it in a sleeping bag.
They went to Orangeville Dam and dumped his body.
The body was discovered the following day by police officers from the K-9 Unit.
The police started with investigations that were led by Captain Karen Meyer and the two men were arrested a few days later.
“The accused denied being involved in the murder of the deceased but the state prosecutor, Advocate Dansi Mpemvane, told the court that the accused were arrested after their cars were seen on camera entering and leaving Oranjeville Dam,” said Shuping.
The prosecution also presented evidence of witnesses who testified how the two accused killed the deceased.
He asked the court to impose life imprisonment on the accused because the murder was horrific and executed with shocking brutality and cruelty against a defenceless person.
Said Mpemvane: “The murder was committed at the accused’s place where his minor children were at the time.
“The personal circumstances of the accused will have to recede into the background and bow to the interest of the society.
“I therefore submit that they should both be sentenced to life imprisonment.”
Judge Danita De Kock concurred with the prosecutor and sentenced the duo to life imprisonment.
She sentenced Sephton to an additional two years for assaulting his wife and another two years for assaulting his friend.
The sentences imposed on Sephton will run concurrently. – Staff Reporter
