WHY? The one question child killer can’t answer

EVERY evening, Willem Louw thinks of little Rachel Hamatundu, the six-year-old girl that he raped and murdered in one of Namibia’s most brutal and shocking crimes in years, the High Court in Windhoek heard yesterday.

Twenty-one months after the crimes that he committed at Swakopmund on the evening of January 31 last year, Louw (32) is still at a loss when asked to explain the reasons for his deeds, Judge Sylvester Mainga heard yesterday when Louw’s case returned to the High Court after a three-and-a-half month adjournment. The case was postponed on August 1 after Judge Mainga convicted Louw of rape, murder, abduction and indecent assault.Louw admitted the rape and murder charges when his trial started on July 5, but denied the other two counts.He admitted that he raped Rachel Hamatundu and then killed her by swinging her by her legs and smashing her head against a concrete pillar at the Swakop­mund sewage works.The only explanation that Louw could give for his decision to rape and then kill the child was that “dirty thoughts” had entered his mind while the girl was walking with him to a shop where he said he wanted to buy something to eat.The girl lived with her father in the same block of flats where Louw lived with his parents.Judge Mainga also convicted Louw of abducting Hamatundu from the flats to the scene where she was to be raped and killed, and further found him guilty of indecently assaulting a three-year-old girl by putting a hand into her shorts while she was sitting on his lap on the morning after Hamatundu’s death.Louw again insisted yesterday he was innocent on that charge.Louw’s defence counsel, Louis Karsten, told the Judge at the start of the day’s proceedings that he had been in contact with one of South Africa’s best-known forensic criminologists, Dr Irma Labuschagne, during the adjournment of the trial and that she had studied Louw’s answers on a questionnaire she had asked him to complete.Labuschagne’s response after this process was that she did not think she would be able to give any evidence in mitigation of Louw’s sentence that would make any difference to the sentence that the court would eventually impose, Karsten informed the Judge.With that, Louw became the only witness to testify in mitigation of the sentence yesterday.There was one question on the matter that Louw was still not able to answer.That is a simple, but also the most difficult, question of all: “Why?” “Up to today, where I lie in the cells, I ask myself every evening why I did it,” Louw told the court.”I cannot tell the court why it happened, because I’m also looking for an answer,” he said.Although he was drunk at the time, he could still remember in detail what he did, he acknowledged.Still, he added: “I don’t know why I did it.”At another point, Louw ventured an opinion that had he been sober, he would not have done what he did that night.”I don’t know what possessed me,” he added.He told the court that because he had committed “this terrible deed”, he felt there was something wrong inside his head.He did not think he was a dangerous person, though, he further said.As an only child, he grew up in what he considered to be a safe and harmonious home, he told the court.Yet at school, he felt like an outcast – he was always alone, he did not have friends, and for some reason, he said, the other children used to call him ‘mal Willie’ (‘mad Willie’).He left school after Grade 7, he related.Louw said he wanted to ask not only Hamatundu’s parents, but also the public, for their forgiveness.”I cried the day that I was arrested, and I am still crying now,” he told the court.”I think of her every evening,” he added at another point.He knows he will be sent to prison, but having already received threats from other prisoners, he said, he knows that when he is sent to jail “then the court is sending me into my own death”.Having heard Louw express the wish to apologise in person to Hamatundu’s parents and to shake their hands, Judge Mainga asked Deputy Prosecutor General Antonia Verhoef to ask the parents if they would be willing to shake hands with him.Both parents declined.By then, Hamatundu’s mother, Claudia Hamatundu, had already told the court that she had forgiven Louw – but she would not forget.”As he did not have mercy for my child, he should also not get any mercy,” she said to the Judge.”I feel very bad about him,” she said when she was asked how she felt about Louw.”It’s like he’s a lion amongst people.”The father of Louw’s victim, Hiskia Ndakondja, told the court he would not be able to forgive Louw.Rachel Hamatundu was his only child at the time of her death, Ndakondja said.About Louw, his opinion was: “He can sit for the rest of his life in prison.”The trial continues today, with Verhoef and Karsten set to address Judge Mainga with their arguments on the sentence that the court will hand down.The case was postponed on August 1 after Judge Mainga convicted Louw of rape, murder, abduction and indecent assault.Louw admitted the rape and murder charges when his trial started on July 5, but denied the other two counts.He admitted that he raped Rachel Hamatundu and then killed her by swinging her by her legs and smashing her head against a concrete pillar at the Swakop­mund sewage works.The only explanation that Louw could give for his decision to rape and then kill the child was that “dirty thoughts” had entered his mind while the girl was walking with him to a shop where he said he wanted to buy something to eat.The girl lived with her father in the same block of flats where Louw lived with his parents. Judge Mainga also convicted Louw of abducting Hamatundu from the flats to the scene where she was to be raped and killed, and further found him guilty of indecently assaulting a three-year-old girl by putting a hand into her shorts while she was sitting on his lap on the morning after Hamatundu’s death.Louw again insisted yesterday he was innocent on that charge.Louw’s defence counsel, Louis Karsten, told the Judge at the start of the day’s proceedings that he had been in contact with one of South Africa’s best-known forensic criminologists, Dr Irma Labuschagne, during the adjournment of the trial and that she had studied Louw’s answers on a questionnaire she had asked him to complete.Labuschagne’s response after this process was that she did not think she would be able to give any evidence in mitigation of Louw’s sentence that would make any difference to the sentence that the court would eventually impose, Karsten informed the Judge.With that, Louw became the only witness to testify in mitigation of the sentence yesterday.There was one question on the matter that Louw was still not able to answer.That is a simple, but also the most difficult, question of all: “Why?” “Up to today, where I lie in the cells, I ask myself every evening why I did it,” Louw told the court.”I cannot tell the court why it happened, because I’m also looking for an answer,” he said.Although he was drunk at the time, he could still remember in detail what he did, he acknowledged.Still, he added: “I don’t know why I did it.”At another point, Louw ventured an opinion that had he been sober, he would not have done what he did that night.”I don’t know what possessed me,” he added.He told the court that because he had committed “this terrible deed”, he felt there was something wrong inside his head.He did not think he was a dangerous person, though, he further said.As an only child, he grew up in what he considered to be a safe and harmonious home, he told the court.Yet at school, he felt like an outcast – he was always alone, he did not have friends, and for some reason, he said, the other children used to call him ‘mal Willie’ (‘mad Willie’).He left school after Grade 7, he related.Louw said he wanted to ask not only Hamatundu’s parents, but also the public, for their forgiveness.”I cried the day that I was arrested, and I am still crying now,” he told the court.”I think of her every evening,” he added at another point.He knows he will be sent to prison, but having already received threats from other prisoners, he said, he k
nows that when he is sent to jail “then the court is sending me into my own death”.Having heard Louw express the wish to apologise in person to Hamatundu’s parents and to shake their hands, Judge Mainga asked Deputy Prosecutor General Antonia Verhoef to ask the parents if they would be willing to shake hands with him.Both parents declined.By then, Hamatundu’s mother, Claudia Hamatundu, had already told the court that she had forgiven Louw – but she would not forget.”As he did not have mercy for my child, he should also not get any mercy,” she said to the Judge.”I feel very bad about him,” she said when she was asked how she felt about Louw.”It’s like he’s a lion amongst people.”The father of Louw’s victim, Hiskia Ndakondja, told the court he would not be able to forgive Louw.Rachel Hamatundu was his only child at the time of her death, Ndakondja said.About Louw, his opinion was: “He can sit for the rest of his life in prison.”The trial continues today, with Verhoef and Karsten set to address Judge Mainga with their arguments on the sentence that the court will hand down.