Cape Town – The North Gauteng High court reportedly sentenced Gerhard Viljoen to 10 years on Wednesday after he pushed his ex-girlfriend’s six-week-old baby against dry ice in his freezer.
According to The Citizen, the accused inflicted several injuries to his ex-girlfriend’s baby by repeatedly hitting him all over his body with his hand and a spatula in October 2020.
Viljoen pleaded guilty and entered an agreement with the court and his case was struck off the roll.
However, upon learning that this was not Viljoen’s first time inflicting harm on the baby, the AfriForum’s private prosecution unit then got involved.
They applied to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) to prosecute Viljoen privately.
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The DPP decided to transfer the case to the high court.
Viljoen also admitted that on another occasion, he had hit the baby with his fist when he wanted to hit the baby’s mother. The latter had been kneeling over her baby at that time, The South African, reported.
“Viljoen pleaded guilty and made a plea agreement with the State. The J88 of the baby contains a list of 12 injuries. Viljoen admitted that he burned the baby by holding him against the dry ice in his refrigerator,” the report quoted Natasha Venter, Advisor at AfriForum’s Private Prosecution Unit as saying.
Viljoen was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment, of which two years were suspended for five years after he was found guilty of assault with the intent to do grievous bodily harm.
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Compiled by Sinothando Siyolo
