The family of murdered three-year-old Courtney Pieters reacted in anger on Wednesday when they learnt via the media that her killer Mortimer Saunders would be appealing his two life terms.
Saunders was found guilty of the rape and premeditated murder of Courtney, but will now exercise his constitutional right to apply for leave to appeal his sentence, which runs concurrently.
The matter will come before the Western Cape High Court on 20 February.
On Wednesday, Courtney’s cousin, Celeste Adonis, said she was horrified when the Daily Voice contacted her for comment.
She says the family is just starting to heal, and now all their old wounds opened again.
“We had to read in the news, that this man who took our baby, is going to [appeal to] get a lighter sentence.
“Nobody informed us and Juanita (Courtney’s mother) would have told us if she knew. I am very upset that this is how we found out,” Celeste said.
VICTIM: Courtney Pieters, 3
Saunders used ant poison on the toddler, claiming that he wanted to get back at Juanita, whom he disliked.
In her judgment, Judge Babalwa Mantame said the State had proved beyond a reasonable doubt that the child’s murder was premeditated.
Before sentencing, Saunders, who had been a tenant of the family, wrote a letter to say sorry for his “heinous crime”.
Judge Mantame described Saunders’s crimes as “lewd and selfish” and the “most vicious, vile, ruthless and evil murder the court has ever seen,” and discredited the letter as an afterthought.