Morne Harmse has shown no remorse for his killing of a fellow student with a sword, the high court in Johannesburg heard during sentencing procedures on Tuesday.
”The guilty party is certainly a first-time offender, but he shows absolutely no remorse over his gruesome deeds,” argued prosecutor Gerrit Roberts.
Harmse carried out the attack, in which he killed 16-year-old Jacques Pretorius and wounded three others, at the Nic Diederichs Technical High School in Krugersdorp, west of Johannesburg, last August.
Roberts said schools were meant to be a safe place, where parents could leave their children without fear.
He said the fact that Harmse committed his crime at this safe place, was ”very serious”.
Roberts said Harmse also planned the attack long before the crime, making the mask he wore during the attack two months in advance. He also planned the Monday morning attack with friends on the Friday before.
Roberts said the victims were unknown to Harmse, and two were innocent schoolchildren in the prime of their lives.
”The victims were just at the wrong place at the wrong time, whose paths crossed [with Harmse] that day.”
Roberts said a life sentence applied in this case.
”The seriousness of the crime, must reflect a fitting punishment.”
Harmse’s defence lawyer, meanwhile, argued that a sentence of life imprisonment was not appropriate in the case.
”The minimum sentence of life doesn’t fit … long term prison is what should be given,” Dolph Jonker told the court.
He said the youth of Harmse, now 19, should be taken into account.
”Lifelong punishment for a young man is a different punishment than for a 50-year-old”.
Jonker said a psychologist and social worker had noted that Harmse was immature for his age.
”Is he a young man or an old child?” he asked, submitting that Harmse’s ”dysfunctional” family circumstances, with a history of family violence, be taken into account.
Harmse also had personality problems. He was ”a complicated person who lived in a dream world”, Jonker told the court.
He needed to go to a prison like Leeuwkop, in Johannesburg, where he could receive therapy.
‘Shocking’
Earlier, the court heard that Harmse experimented with elements of satanism, but he was not a satanist.
”He is only a person who experimented self-style,” an expert in the occult, Dr Jonker Jacobus, said.
He said he thought Harmse wore a mask and carried swords during his attack to get a certain power.
”They seek a power. They want to say ‘I have a power or strength to manipulate people’.”
Jacobus said while Harmse’s room at home had satanic paraphernalia, like an ouija board and an image of a demon painted on a bedside stool, these were also interspersed with things a full satanist would not use.
For example, he burnt candles, some of which were pink or white, and had normal coloured bedspreads and curtains whereas a satanist would use red and black.
Asked what he thought about the killing, Jacobus said: ”It’s shocking … the whole business is heartbreaking.” — Sapa