Self-confessed child killer Mortimer Saunders will not be taking the stand in his own defence, a move which has angered the mother of his young victim.
Saunders, 41, has admitted to killing three-year-old Courtney Pieters, but denies raping her.
GONE: Courtney Pieters. Photo: Supplied
He has been charged with murder and rape in the Western Cape High Court and Wednesday the defence rested its case and confirmed Saunders will not be shedding light on the final hours of the little girl.
A disappointed Juanita Peters says she will now never know what happened to her child.
DISAPPOINTED: Mom Juanita Pieters. Photo: Noor Slamdien/ AFRICAN NEWS AGENCY (ANA)
“I was waiting for him to speak. All I wanted was to know what happened to my child,” the mom tells the Daily Voice.
“I wanted him to say what he did and why he did it. Now we will never know. I suppose we have to make peace that he will die with the truth.”
Courtney went missing from her home in Pluto Street in Elsies River on 4 May last year.
Saunders, who had been boarding with the family for two years and was a close friend of Courtney’s father, Aaron Fourie, admitted to killing the little girl and committing a sexual act with her corpse.
He said he killed the child because he had “issues” with Juanita. He did not clarify what these issues were.
On Tuesday, on what would have been their daughter’s fifth birthday, the parents went to visit her tiny grave at the Belhar Cemetery.
GONE: Courtney's family at her grave. Photo: Noor Slamdien/ AFRICAN NEWS AGENCY (ANA)
“I did not go to court. Dit was my kind se dag. Ons het by haar graaf gaan sit. My heart is not whole, I will never heal from this loss,” the emotional mom says.
In admissions to the court, Saunders claimed he never meant to kill Courtney when he fed her poison in his room.
“My intention was to make her sick and in doing so, get back at her mother,” his affidavit reads.
He claims he tried to keep her quiet when she coughed up the mixture and her family came looking for her.
“To stop her from screaming, I hit her with my open hand on the forehead, closed her mouth and choked her by putting my hand around her throat,” said Saunders.
He “placed her in a bag”, and left the room for 10 minutes.
He said when he returned, he “noticed that her lips were blue and her body lifeless. I realised she was dead. I decided to get rid of the body.
“Before I did so, I pulled down her denim shorts and panty, penetrating her vagina with three fingers... I became aroused. I took out my penis and did place it on her body and around her vagina, but I did not penetrate her with it.”
Closing arguments will be heard on 17 September.
saafia.february@inl.co.za