A man who fatally injured his pregnant girlfriend when he stabbed her with a knife more than five years ago has been found guilty on charges of murder and defeating or obstructing the course of justice after standing trial in the Windhoek High Court.
Judge Dinnah Usiku convicted the man, Abraham Maasdorp (24), in a judgement delivered on Friday.
The state alleged that Maasdorp murdered his then girlfriend, Magda van Wyk (26), by stabbing her in the breast at Gobabis during the night of 2 to 3 August 2019.
Van Wyk died in a hospital in Windhoek on 13 August 2019.
During Maasdorp’s trial, Usiku was told that a post-mortem examination revealed Van Wyk had a small, penetrating stab wound to her heart, which caused bleeding in her chest.
The bleeding proved to be fatal 10 days after the injury had been inflicted.
The court also heard that Van Wyk visited a clinic at Gobabis on the day after the stabbing. The injury to her left breast was considered to be superficial at that stage, and the wound was stitched.
Van Wyk returned to the clinic five days later, complaining of chest pain and lower abdominal pains, and a test then showed she was pregnant, the court heard.
She was referred to a hospital at Gobabis, where she was admitted upon arrival.
Van Wyk was being treated for an ectopic pregnancy before she died, with the cause of her death not clear at that stage.
During Maasdorp’s trial, one of the state’s witnesses testified that she was with Van Wyk at a bar at Gobabis when Maasdorp, who appeared to be under the influence of alcohol, approached Van Wyk and asked her to go home with him.
Maasdorp and Van Wyk were living together at the time.
The witness said Van Wyk refused to go home with Maasdorp, and he then took out a knife and stabbed Van Wyk in the breast.
Van Wyk did not report the incident to the police.
One of the state’s witnesses told the court she advised Van Wyk to report the matter to the police, but she refused. Van Wyk also told the witness she could not explain why Maasdorp stabbed her, because she feared she would be killed by him, Usiku recounted in her judgement.
According to Maasdorp, he found Van Wyk at a bar at Gobabis and noticed she was not looking well.
He said she told him she had been stabbed by an unknown person when she tried to stop a fight between people at the bar.
Maasdorp also said Van Wyk said she was well and did not want to go to a clinic then.
Usiku rejected Maasdorp’s version about the stabbing as “clearly false”.
The judge noted that Maasdorp “in actual fact played down the stabbing of [Van Wyk], claiming that it was no one’s business but theirs”.
Usiku concluded that this, together with the nature of the weapon used by Maasdorp and the part of her body in which Van Wyk was stabbed, indicated that Maasdorp acted with an intention to kill Van Wyk.
He was also found guilty of defeating or obstructing the course of justice for getting rid of the knife with which Van Wyk was stabbed.
Maasdorp has to return to court for a presentence hearing on 6 June.
State advocate Basson Lilungwe is representing the prosecution.
Maasdorp is being represented by defence lawyer Mbanga Siyomunji.
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