A 55-year-old businessman who shot dead a policeman who arrested him for drunken driving in 2003 was sentenced to 12 years imprisonment by the Pretoria High Court on Monday.
Irish-born businessman John Raymond Whelan was sentenced for killing police officer Phillip du Plooy in March 2003.
Whelan told a social worker his victim’s family ”was better off without him”.
Judge Piet van der Byl described this remark on Monday by Whelan as ”extremely disturbing” and indicative of a lack of remorse.
Du Plooy stumbled into the Benoni police station, where he collapsed and died after being shot at point blank range in the chest and stomach shortly after arresting Whelan for suspected drunken driving and transporting him to the police station.
Van der Byl rejected Whelan’s version that he had acted in self defence and had believed that Du Plooy was about to shoot him.
Whelan claimed the police officer had not identified himself and that he had been under the impression that he was being hijacked.
Whelan used to have his own transport company in Benoni and previously worked as a manager in the airline industry in England and Germany.
He said he had entertained business clients at a restaurant earlier that evening, but denied that he was under the influence of alcohol, despite a report stating that his blood alcohol level was 0,31 after the incident.
Whelan insisted that the report had been tampered with and claimed he had been framed.
Van der Byl said he accepted that Whelan had acted on the spur of the moment, perhaps to avoid being arrested for drunken driving and that his intoxication had influenced him to do something he would probably not have done had he been sober.
He had also taken into account Whelan’s age and his poor health, which may have contributed to his ”paranoia” that his life had been threatened.
Whelan also had no criminal record and had up to now managed to live a useful life.
Social worker Rene Pretorius testified that Whelan had told her he was ”surprised” by his conviction, as he believed he had acted in self-defence.
He told her he would do the same in a similar situation. He felt Du Plooy was to blame for his own death as he ”had not acted according to procedure” and insinuated (without any proof) that the policeman had beaten his wife and that his family ”was better off without him”.
Whelan had lost his business, house and car as a result of the incident and his health had also deteriorated in prison, with his gout and a skin condition becoming worse.
Pretorius said the murdered policeman’s three children and colleagues were traumatised by his death. His son, who was in matric at the time, tried to commit suicide shortly after his father’s funeral and the family was disappointed that Whelan had never apologised to them.
Du Plooy’s colleagues described him as one of the best in his unit and expressed disbelief that he could have provoked such an incident.
The victim’s son, Phillip and daughter, Annelle Loggenberg, said they were extremely disappointed with the sentence, as they felt Whelan deserved life imprisonment, if not the death penalty.
”His health has nothing to do with the case. He was only too happy to pull the trigger. What he sowed he should reap. His life should also be taken,” Du Plooy Jr told reporters. -Sapa