Cape Town - Convicted criminal Jakobus Petoors yesterday pleaded guilty to the murder, rape, and kidnapping of 8-year-old Reagan Gertse in the Western Cape High Court.
In his admission of guilt, 55-year-old Petoors explained in detail how he committed his crimes.
He said that after returning from community service, he came across Reagan Gertse.
He called Gertse over to speak to him because he knew him. He then told Gertse that he was going for a swim in the river, not too far from where they lived in Tulbagh. As they walked towards the river Gertse was recognised by a friend and, wanting to leave Petoors he fell down.
As Gertse wanted to part ways with Petoors, he placed his arm around the little boy’s neck and persuaded him to join him. He proceeded to take him to the river where he raped the boy and smothered his head in the water against the ground until he was dead. Petoors admitted that he was fully aware of his actions and knew that Gertse would die.
He placed Gertse’s lifeless body at next to the trees at the river bank, with his face on the ground and walked away. That evening he was questioned by Louisa Gertse about the whereabouts of her son, but he kept the truth to himself. He was arrested on Sunday, March 1, 2020.
During proceedings, State prosecutor advocate Maresa Engelbrecht revealed the extent of Petoors’ previous convictions.
The first dated back to 1983, when he was charged with what was then known as sodomy. He later intermittently spent time in prison for housebreaking and theft on several occasions, assault, possession of dagga, sexual offences and rape.
When he committed the crime he had already been convicted of rape and assault with intent to do serious bodily harm in July 2012 and was sentenced to 12 years imprisonment. He was released on parole in November 2019.
Gertse’s body was discovered by police during a search operation after he was reported missing on February 29, 2020. At the time, the community was outraged and protested at the Tulbagh magistrate’s court.
In her argument for sentencing, Engelbrecht asked the court to impose a sentence of life imprisonment.
She said: “The murder of the deceased forms part of the scourge of child murders that’s been plaguing the Western Cape and the South African community in its entirety. The accused needs to be removed from the community as he contributed to the very unacceptable high levels of crime in our country.
“The sentence of the court has to boost the confidence of the community in the criminal justice system of our country and should be a deterrent to others in the community and avoid the community wanting to have retribution on the accused.
“Rape is always an appalling act, but the rape of a child under the age of 16 years, in this case eight years old, is viewed in a particularly serious light because children are vulnerable and ill-equipped to protect themselves against sexual predators,” Engelbrecht said.