Court reduces sentence for mother convicted of child murder

A MOTHER who had murdered her three-year-old daughter – who was so severely tortured by her parents over a long time and who eventually died when her mother gave her a blow to the head – received a lifeline when the court reduced her life imprisonment sentence to one of 15 years.

Three judges of the Gauteng High Court said while they did not condone what the mother had done to her child, the judge who sentenced her in 2019 failed to substantiate why he imposed the maximum sentence.

Welmarie Smith, who was 39 when she was sentenced, also at the time received a further 25 years imprisonment for the prolonged assault of her daughter.

But on appeal, the court now substituted this with a five-year sentence and said 25 years for assault was totally out of proportion.

Her former husband, Willem Smith, the deceased Nicole’s father, was convicted of assaulting the child and he too received a 25-year jail sentence for this. He was not convicted of her murder as he was not home on the day when she died.

Judge Collis, who wrote the appeal judgment, noted that it is not known whether he ever appealed his sentence, but she said if not, he should be advised to do so.

While the father, a boilermaker, was not at their then Springs flat on the day Nicole died, Judge Bert Bam found that he too assaulted Nicole over a period of time.

It was found that the child died after a final mother’s blow to her forehead. The mother claimed that the child had fallen out of her cot, but the court rejected this. The mother also claimed that the father had thrown a Marmite bottle at the child, which had hit her head previously and could have contributed to her death.

When the paramedics fetched the little girl at home after she had died, they noted various assault marks as well as cigarette burns across her body.

A pathologist told the court the child, who weighed 12 kg when she died, was emaciated and had 18 different wounds and bruises to her body.

She also had a fractured leg which she had suffered sometime before her death and for which she was never treated.

Neither she nor her husband, from whom she is now divorced, admitted to the end that they had assaulted the child.

Judge Bam, in sentencing them, remarked that this was one of the worst cases of child abuse he had ever seen. “They in fact tortured her over a lengthy period,” he said. The judge further remarked that this was “purely evil” behaviour by the parents.

“It is incomprehensible how parents can do this to their own flesh and blood. It is an evil deed. There is no doubt that this small, defenceless child suffered severely. This case is one of the worst examples of torture and abuse of a child,” he said.

On reducing the sentence, Judge Collis said this must not be misconstrued that the court did not appreciate the seriousness and prevalence of these types of crimes. She said the court is alive to the fact that the mother, as the child’s caretaker, was responsible for her well-being.

But, she said, the judge failed to give reasons why he meted out the ultimate sentences on the mother.

Cape Argus