Crime News: Policeman executed injured youth out of pity
J. E. Hoover
Pretoria - A shocked court yesterday heard how a Nigel policeman,
accused of murdering the 20-year-old son of a town clerk, confessed that
he had executed the youth out of pity because he was so badly injured.
Gert Louw told police investigating officers he had executed Jaco de
Bruyn, son of DJ de Bruyn, Wolmeransstad's town clerk, because the youth
had been very badly injured after a brutal assault allegedly carried out
as revenge over the death of Mr De Bruyn's girlfriend a few weeks
earlier.
During Mr Louw's bail application at the Klerksdorp Regional Court
yesterday, Mr De Bruyn hung his head as the arresting officer, inspector
Heinrich Geldenhuys of the Klerksdorp police, testified that on the day
of his arrest Mr Louw had been told that his firearm was found at the
scene of the crime.
"He (Louw) said that he shot the deceased because he was so badly
injured," Mr Geldenhuys told the court.
Jaco De Bruyn was killed by a bullet fired between his eyes.
Mr De Bruyn left his parents' home that night in the company of a man
who identified himself as a member of National Intelligence and who said
he was investigating the death of De Bruyn's girlfriend, Vicky Nel, 19.
Nel died in a car parked outside the Ottosdal police station three weeks
before De Bruyn's murder.
In Mr Louw's written confession to the magistrate he said De Bruyn was
so badly injured after a brutal assault allegedly carried out at the
home of Nel's father that he took out his gun and shot him.
Ardri Louw, the wife of the accused, pleaded with magistrate Louis
Vertue to grant her husband bail.
Magistrate Vertue denied Mr Louw bail after viewing photographs of De
Bruyn's corpse earlier in the proceedings.
He said the killing was "brutal". The case was postponed until October 2
and Mr Louw was remanded in custody at Klerksdorp prison.
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