Cape Town child killer receives three life sentences
CAPE TOWN, June 14 (ANA) - The man who pleaded guilty to raping and murdering a Cape Town girl has been sentenced to three life terms plus seven years in the Western Cape High Court on Monday.
Steven Fortune pleaded guilty in December 2020 to charges of murder, two counts of rape and the kidnapping of Michaela Williams, from Pelican Park, on January 7, 2020.
According to the summary of facts presented before the court, Fortune strangled Williams with his hands and she resisted, knocking off his glasses. He then ripped the vest top she was wearing from her body and used the material to tie her wrists behind her back.
Fortune then penetrated Williams through her vagina and anus, and when she tried screaming he used her own skirt to strangle her in an attempt to keep her quiet.
The State said Fortune had then thrown two concrete blocks on top of the young girl’s head and covered her body with a blanket before leaving the scene of the crime.
Fortune, who had been previously convicted for attempted murder and rape of a minor, was sought by the police for questioning the day after Williams disappeared.
On January 8, Fortune sent a text to a relative, giving a location for the police to find and arrest him. He gave them a statement and even pointed out where he had left the girl’s body.
A post-mortem revealed the cause of death as a combination of blunt-force trauma to the head and ligature compression of the neck.
Fortune was sentenced to life imprisonment for Williams’s murder, life imprisonment for each of the rape charges and seven years for kidnapping.
The judge ordered the sentences to run concurrently.
Fortune has also been deemed unfit to possess a firearm and it has been ordered that his name be entered into the National Register for Sex Offenders.
Spokesperson for the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), Eric Ntabazalila, said it welcomed the sentencing and that the court has asked that the judgment be forwarded for the attention of the minister of justice and the minister of correctional services.
All court document evidence is also to be served to the head of prison where Fortune will be detained to serve his life sentence.
- African News Agency (ANA)