Mother's emotional statement seals 25-year sentence for Deveney's murderer

In a final blow to seal the 25-year imprisonment fate of her daughter’s murderer, Lida Nel gave an emotional victim impact statement detailing what her life has been like since the brutal killing of Deveney Nel. 

Deveney’s killer, a 17-year-old peer who entered into a plea agreement with the State admitting his guilt, was handed the maximum sentence by the Western Cape High Court this week.

In the lead-up to the trial, the teenage killer - whose identity was withheld during the trial due to his age - underwent a 30-day psychiatric evaluation at Valkenberg Hospital. The assessment confirmed that he was fit to stand trial.

Lida and the investigating officer were both consulted before the sentence agreement was concluded, and they agreed with it.

In an emotional account of dealing with the loss and grieving her slain daughter, Lida said Deveney was “brutally, deliberately, and cold-bloodedly murdered”. 

“She must have been so afraid and scared, wondering whether someone will find her; she must have felt so alone. There was a lot of blood.”

She said there were no mitigating circumstances that would allow for a lesser sentence, adding that “giving up or losing your daughter (or child) to another’s hand is the most painful pain that can exist in a parent’s life”.

“Murder is the worst thing anyone can do. Still, some days I think to myself that what happened cannot be true, because how can anyone think of hurting another so much that it causes their death.”

Lida described Deveney as “gentle, loving, helpful, full of empathy for others, and always put other people's feelings above her own, stood up for what is right and wrong. She was a phenomenal person.”

Lida detailed in her victim impact statement that the actions of her daughter’s killer changed her life and the life of Deveney’s sister, Jamie, forever. 

National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) spokesperson Eric Ntabazalila said the teenager confessed to the murder and the attempt to hide her body.

Ntabazalila said the teenager was sentenced to 25 years' direct imprisonment for the murder and 12 months' direct imprisonment for the attempt to defeat the course of justice.

The court ordered the sentences to run concurrently, effectively sentencing him to 25 years' direct imprisonment.

During the trial, the court heard that Deveney and her killer were both part of their school’s first aid team and were friends. On the day of her murder, they were both on first aid duty at a school sporting event.   

“Around 3.45pm, he asked her if she would assist at the netball courts, and she agreed. He accompanied her. He claims they became intimate in the school’s storeroom, and she told him after that she had cheated on her new boyfriend with him.

“He did not know she had a boyfriend, and this made him upset. He throttled her, and she became weak and fell to the ground. He took out a knife he had in his jacket pocket and stabbed her in the neck and chest. He aimed for her major arteries, intending to cause her death. He stabbed her four times - twice in the neck and twice in the chest. She fought back and then just became still,” said Ntabazalila.

 After confirming she had no pulse, he concealed her body in the back of the storeroom, dragging it across the floor. Upon returning to his first aid duties, he planted her cellphone in a bakkie parked in the lot — a deliberate attempt to mislead searchers and divert police investigation away from himself.

Joining the search himself, he watched as police were called to the scene. Authorities recovered the victim's cellphone and eventually discovered her body in the storeroom. Days later, when police interviewed him as the last person seen with her, he confessed to what had happened.

chevon.booysen@inl.co.za