A probation officer has called on the Western Cape High Court to sentence Jeremy Sias to direct imprisonment despite him being found not guilty of murdering Meghan Cremer.
The long-awaited report by probation officer, Lilian Nzweni, was read into the record on Tuesday as sentencing proceedings got under way.
Sias went on trial for the 2019 murder of Cremer after the State alleged that he had strangled her to death, robbed her and stole her Toyota Auris.
After a lengthy trial, Judge Elizabeth Baartman found Sias not guilty of murder saying the State had failed to prove its case.
During the trial, the wife of the farm owner, Linda Mohr, outed Meghan as a druggie and presented WhatsApp messages as proof.
She further told the court that three “Malay” men came to the farm to watch Meghan as she took showjumping lessons, seemingly to intimidate her.
Baartman slammed the State for allegedly suppressing evidence including camera footage that Linda told the court was available to the investigation team.
Sias was, however, found guilty on two charges of theft and defeating the ends of justice after admitting that he took Meghan’s car but got a skrik when he found her body in the boot, and dumped her on a veldjie.
In her report, Nzweni says that Sias had accepted responsibility for his crimes and recommended that Baartman sentence him to prison while highlighting that he had already spent four years in the mang awaiting trial.
Defence advocate Bashier Sibda asked if her recommendations for jail time were based on the high-profile nature of the case, and Nzweni agreed.