Karl Greyvensteyn, the young waiter convicted of murdering his parents and brother at their luxury home in Lynnwood Glen two years ago, on Monday sat sobbing quietly before being given three life terms.
Mr Justice Johan Els said he could not find any mitigation to justify a lesser sentence.
He described the murders of Greyvensteyn’s father, quantity surveyor Otto Greyvensteyn (50) his mother Erika (48) and brother Christo (22) as one of the most cold-blooded acts that one could imagine.
All three of them were shot in their beds where they lay asleep. Greyvensteyn had first shot his parents and then waited for his brother to come home and fall asleep before shooting him as well.
He said although the motive for the murders was not very clear, such conduct could not be allowed.
”I find it inconceivable how a person can murder his own parents. Your father was understandably worried that you stopped your studies and did not have a fixed job. They supported you and even gave you a car to use and paid for the petrol.
”Because you were unhappy by their decision to take you in hand, you shot them,” the judge told Greyvensteyn.
He said the murders were premeditated and carried out with the direct intention to kill. All three of the victims had been shot in the head.
The judge earlier rejected Greyvensteyn’s claim that he had shot his brother in a fit of anger after realising that his brother had killed his parents and was trying to pin the blame on him, as an illogical and improbable ”fairy tale”.
A psychologist, Dr Gerhard Labuschagne, described Greyvensteyn as ”narcissistic” and self-centred. His need to satisfy himself, but at the same time get the approval of others, caused severe tension and anxiety within himself.
He could not relate to people and mostly had superficial relationships with others. A lack of empathy with others was characteristic of his kind of personality problem.
A social worker said in a report the fact that the parents had played off one son against the other and that Christo had always been held up as an example to Greyvensteyn, had caused severe tension between the two brothers.
Hennie de Vos, SC, appearing for Greyvensteyn, told the court his client’s overriding desire to be reconciled with his girlfriend had caused him to commit the murders.
Family and friends of his parents expressed their satisfaction about Greyvensteyn’s conviction and sentence, saying that they had always known that the soft-spoken Christo Greyvensteyn could not have shot his parents.
Otto Greyvensteyn’s brother, Chris, said God alone could forgive something like this.
”I do not hate Karl, but I feel nothing for him. I am satisfied about the sentence,” he told reporters. – Sapa