Can't make up my mind what to think on this one. Is it another OJ or did he honestly think she was an intruder> When I went to South Africa the high security and fear of crime was pretty intense
An interviewed cop said they'd been called out before, but they didn't exactly specify what it was about could of been an attempted home invasion, but quite often people in spot light can be totally different people at home. South Africa is not one of my top countries to visit ,I've heard off some people that it's a great country to visit but at the same time there is always some horror story. Quite a lot of people at our South African office are foreign nationals due to security concerns rather then finding them houses or apartments we've put them up in some private complex, complete with heavily armed security and walls etc.
It's a strange one, my best mate is from Zimbabwe and his mum is actually South African, so he visits there nearly every year. I said to him, I find it weird for someone to just shoot a burglar without telling them he is armed or telling them to piss off. But he said that burglars go in with guns and would shoot if they saw him. So makes you think there could be an element of truth in that. We'll never know to be honest, if he did domestically abuse his wife and that's what the previous callouts there were about than it probably was nothing to do with him thinking it was a intruder.
something must have Pist-orius off Seriously though, though I like to go out shooting, all guns should be kept in safe depositories at gun clubs with you and the owner of the gun club with a key each. Only opens with both keys and only used inside the premiss. Anyone found with a hand gun outside should have the book thrown at them! Then if someone flies into a blind range they can't be stupid enough to shoot people like that poor girl in SA
Just heard on sky news the reports that he is also supposed to have kept a machine gun by his bedroom window
Lets put it this way, its 4 o'clock in the morning presumably dark because he didn't recongnise her, he lets off 4 shots, 1 hit in the arm, 1 hit in the chest and 1 in the head! either he is a Jedi, went to bed wear night vision goggles or there is something dodgy! + toxicology reports concluded he was legless at the time
I have been to SA several times and have friends in Jobo I stay with. They live in a secure compound with armed patrols, have rottweilers out side the house and a "house" dog to keep intruders out.Their property has an 8 foot fence topped with razorwire surrounding it so it is fair to say that security is taken pretty seriously over there. To give some context his gardener was murdered and a friends wife was raped and murdered in her own home when her husband was away on business. Balanced against which I have never seen any trouble over there but loads of people carry guns and culturally it is deemed perfectly acceptable to shoot a burglar or intruder on your property and there do not seem to be any repurcussions for doing so. I met a bloke at a brai who told me that he had shot two intruders the previous month and the police had turned up, asked him what happened and just took the bodies away with no further action. Had Tony Martin been over there his actions would not have made the local news. All that said SA is a beautiful country, Cape Town is a wonderful city, there are great game drives, Sun City is fun and the food and wine are top notch and excellent value and the people are generally really pleasant. It is fair to say that it has not progressed as far as perhaps it should have post-apartheid and the continued disparity in wealth is the principal cause of the violence over there. To my untrained legal eye it looks very bad for Pretorius.
Murder or manslaughter is a question of intent. If they had a row, he lost his rag and then shot her its murder. If he contends that she came into his house unexpecedly in the ealry hours, it was dark and he mistook his girlfriend for a burglar and shot her four times then it would be manslaughter but i wouldn't want to be his defence lawyer trying to convince a jury.
I remember watching a documentary about farmers living in the middle of nowhere having to fortify their place like a castle, most of them were just people trying to make a living but there was some who were just right wing nutters who were obsessed with firearms and militarism. The stories in the documentaries were nuts though people being slaughtered in the homes at night etc. I've been burgled whilst I wasn't there at the time other people were in the house at the time asleep, so I can sort of sympathise with people who want to unleash serious violence on a home intruder.
Isn't ncfcwonky a lawyer of some sort? Shame he's not posting anymore perhaps he could have enlightened us.
Sorry to hear that northampton, and totally agree that anybody should be able to protect their home to the fullest extent.
