Durban — Two years ago Jorina Pretorius received a phone call that every parent dreads – a fellow pupil had stabbed her 15-year-old son.
Pretorius rushed from Hillary to Ashley, Pinetown, where she saw her son lying in a pool of blood.
A fellow Grade 10 pupil had stabbed Jayden Glazer, a Grade 9 pupil at Chosen Independent Studies, in an arranged fistfight after school.
Jayden’s last moments were captured on a cellphone camera as his friends made a video of what they had anticipated to be a fistfight between their two peers.
Pretorius’s life was turned upside down. Jayden, her second child, was her miracle who she had when she was 43 years old.
Pretorius, 60, still battles to come to terms with the loss of her son and wants 18-year-old Ryleigh Naidoo, convicted of her son’s murder, to serve time behind bars – at least five years.
“I’m getting a little bit of closure now that we are headed to sentencing,” she said outside the Pinetown Magistrate’s Court on Friday when pre-sentencing proceedings were heard.
Nine months after Jayden’s death, a bird flew into Pretorius’s home on Christmas Eve, and knowing that feathers and birds were signs of the presence of angels, she believed that the bird was her son.
Her belief was cemented on Friday morning when she found the Lovebird she had named “Jay” dead in its cage.
“I believe that the reason why the bird passed away on this specific day was that my son had realised that justice has been finally served and he can now rest in peace,” she said.
Because Naidoo was a minor at the time of the murder the court has to sentence him as such on Monday.
Inside court, magistrate L Goorie said it would be a challenging and daunting task to sentence Naidoo.
“The court has to explore every possible sentence option. Whatever decision it makes will be in the interest of justice.
“You are a victim of a silly situation where two children wanted to confront each other,” the magistrate told Pretorius while she was on the stand.
Pretorius had been on the stand telling the court how her son’s murder had impacted her and how she expected the court to hand Naidoo some jail time, at least, as she had lost her son at such a young age.
Pretorius broke into tears as she sat down in the gallery after giving her testimony.
Goorie was presented with two pre-sentencing reports, one from a correctional officer and the other from a probation officer analysing the psychosocial condition of the accused.
The probation officer’s report said the official did not deliberate on other sentencing options such as a suspended sentence and correctional supervision because she did not find them relevant to expatiate on, except for the imprisonment option.
The report said: “The court may consider imprisonment as an ideal punishment for the accused because of the seriousness of the offence and the manner (in which) the offence occurred.
“It is imperative to consider how the victim’s family are affected by the incident, and the accused’s partial remorse should be scrutinised because it is not genuine remorse for what he did. However, the duration of the sentence will be determined by the courts.”
Naidoo’s lawyer, Clinton Short, in mitigation of sentence, said it was not true that the accused showed partial remorse, adding that Naidoo had read out an apology letter to Pretorius in court and had said while being cross-examined that he had made a mistake.
He asked the court in sentencing to consider the best interests of the accused and whether a custodial sentence would rehabilitate the accused or alter his life completely.
State prosecutor André de Nysschen, in aggravation of sentence, said at the end of the day the court must ensure that justice was served, adding that a term of imprisonment was appropriate. However, he shied away from suggesting a quantum.
After hearing Short and De Nysschen, Goorie said she would need time to prepare the sentence.
“We’re dealing with a matter that is sensitive with complicated circumstances and that is why I said it is a challenging situation for the court. “There’s a lot of consideration to be given to the Child Justice Act principles, therefore the court requires time to set out this sentence,” she said.
Outside court, Naidoo and his family approached Pretorius, embracing her with hugs and apologising. However, she said she could not accept the gesture as it was two years too late.
Sunday Tribune