Windhoek stabbing suspect to hear verdict on November 10

HIGH Court Judge Kato van Niekerk will deliver her verdict in the murder trial of Windhoek resident Sean Burger in six weeks time.

Burger is accused of killing a female friend in the capital two years ago. Judge Van Niekerk yesterday postponed the trial to November 10 for judgement, four and a half months after Burger first offered a plea of guilty to a charge that he murdered 29-year-old Theresia Viljoen in her house in Behring Street, Windhoek West, on September 15 2002.That Burger (37) will be convicted, appeared to be a foregone conclusion yesterday.The only remaining question is whether the court will find that there was direct intention to kill Viljoen.He stabbed her with knives from her own kitchen – allegedly 20 times in all, with two of those stab wounds going through her heart.Deputy Prosecutor General Danie Small argued yesterday that the only deduction that could be made from the way in which Viljoen had been stabbed, the sort of weapons used – steak knives with serrated blades – and the number of times that she had been stabbed, was that the person who had stabbed her had intended to kill her.Small asked the court to convict Burger of murder with direct intention to kill.However, according to Burger’s counsel, Louis Botes, a court could not conclude that the only reasonable inference that could be drawn from the facts was that there had been direct intent to kill Viljoen.Burger had told the court that he could not explain why he had done such a terrible thing to a woman for whom he had felt a deep love, Botes reminded the court.The two lawyers addressed the court after the Judge heard additional testimony from witnesses that she had ordered to be called yesterday.The first of these was Dr Paul Ludik, the Director of the National Forensic Science Institute of Namibia, who was summoned to give an explanation for the repeated delays for test results that have marked the work of the Institute recently.Ludik told the court that forensic tests normally took a certain amount of time and that the Institute faced a heavy work load and financial constraints.Something like a tool mark test, in which the Institute was, for example, asked to determine whether broken knife blades found at the scene where Viljoen was killed, had been part of a single object, would take three months to complete, according to Ludik.He also explained that this year, for instance, the Institute had received “a measly” N$22 000 in its budget to carry out DNA testing for criminal cases.At the point when he testified, the Institute had only N$376,77 left to spend on DNA testing, he added.At the same time, the Institute already had a large backlog of cases in which DNA tests had been requested, Ludik said.Judge Van Niekerk told him that unnecessary delays in getting test results from the Institute, as had happened in Burger’s matter, were unacceptable.Ludik responded by telling the court that he wanted to warn it in time that further delays should in fact be expected.Judge Van Niekerk yesterday postponed the trial to November 10 for judgement, four and a half months after Burger first offered a plea of guilty to a charge that he murdered 29-year-old Theresia Viljoen in her house in Behring Street, Windhoek West, on September 15 2002.That Burger (37) will be convicted, appeared to be a foregone conclusion yesterday.The only remaining question is whether the court will find that there was direct intention to kill Viljoen.He stabbed her with knives from her own kitchen – allegedly 20 times in all, with two of those stab wounds going through her heart.Deputy Prosecutor General Danie Small argued yesterday that the only deduction that could be made from the way in which Viljoen had been stabbed, the sort of weapons used – steak knives with serrated blades – and the number of times that she had been stabbed, was that the person who had stabbed her had intended to kill her.Small asked the court to convict Burger of murder with direct intention to kill.However, according to Burger’s counsel, Louis Botes, a court could not conclude that the only reasonable inference that could be drawn from the facts was that there had been direct intent to kill Viljoen.Burger had told the court that he could not explain why he had done such a terrible thing to a woman for whom he had felt a deep love, Botes reminded the court.The two lawyers addressed the court after the Judge heard additional testimony from witnesses that she had ordered to be called yesterday.The first of these was Dr Paul Ludik, the Director of the National Forensic Science Institute of Namibia, who was summoned to give an explanation for the repeated delays for test results that have marked the work of the Institute recently.Ludik told the court that forensic tests normally took a certain amount of time and that the Institute faced a heavy work load and financial constraints.Something like a tool mark test, in which the Institute was, for example, asked to determine whether broken knife blades found at the scene where Viljoen was killed, had been part of a single object, would take three months to complete, according to Ludik.He also explained that this year, for instance, the Institute had received “a measly” N$22 000 in its budget to carry out DNA testing for criminal cases.At the point when he testified, the Institute had only N$376,77 left to spend on DNA testing, he added.At the same time, the Institute already had a large backlog of cases in which DNA tests had been requested, Ludik said.Judge Van Niekerk told him that unnecessary delays in getting test results from the Institute, as had happened in Burger’s matter, were unacceptable.Ludik responded by telling the court that he wanted to warn it in time that further delays should in fact be expected.