A Johannesburg woman walked out of the Johannesburg High Court on Wednesday without a backward glance at her former lover, and co-accused, who was sentenced to 15 years for shooting her father dead at her request.
Guinevere Denton herself received a three-year suspended sentence.
Denton’s father, Richard Denton (48) was shot in the back on April 8, 1999. He was lying in bed at the time.
Since then Denton has had two other boyfriends. The latest took her hand in support during an adjournment, while she completely ignored accused Vaughn Walters.
Walters earlier pleaded guilty to murdering Richard Denton. His legal representative, JP Myburgh, explained to court that Denton had informed Walters that her father and his friend had raped her and that she feared it would happen again.
Walters, who was 19 years old at the time, went to Denton’s house and shot him dead before driving off in his car.
Walters also pleaded guilty to theft, and received a further four years imprisonment, to be served with the 15 years.
Fifteen years was the minimum prescribed sentence for the crime, Judge J Hlongwe said. He found no substantial or compelling circumstances to impose a lesser sentence.
”One is not permitted to take the law into one’s own hand,” he said.
He pointed out that while Walters had previously suggested Denton, who was 16 at the time, go to the police, he chose to kill her father ”instead of taking her out of the house and to a place of safety”.
Turning his attention to Denton, the judge said she was both a perpetrator and a victim, but that sexual molestation was ”not a passport to commit a crime”.
Denton pleaded guilty to, and was convicted of, being an accessory after the fact of the murder. She made false statements to the police to protect Walters.
Imposing the sentence, Hlongwe said the love and passion Walters then had for Denton could not justify the murder. – Sapa