A man has been convicted of killing his ex-girlfriend’s five-year-old daughter because she had broken up with him.
Little Kaithlyn Wilson was murdered on 30 July 2017.
Her killer, Jonathan Heyns, had suffocated her to death by putting a face cloth in her mouth and covering her face with black insulation tape.
His friend, August Pedro-Lee Swartz, was found guilty of being an accessory, after he helped hide her body.
Heyns and Kaithlyn’s mother, Yvonne Wilson, from Riebeek West near Malmesbury, had been going out for years but when she broke up with him, he threatened to kill both her and her daughter.
He previously assaulted and insulted Yvonne.
On the fatal day, Yvonne went to work and left Kaithlyn in the care of her mother.
The child was last seen entering Heyns’ home where he had fixed her bicycle.
At first, Heyns and Swartz denied knowing the missing child’s whereabouts but witnesses saw the two men pushing a wheelbarrow with “rubbish” in it.
Mom Yvonne Wilson of Riebeek West
It took cops only a few hours to get the truth from Swartz, who showed cops where they had buried her under a tree.
On Friday, in the Cape High Court, Judge Babalwa Mantame convicted Heyns of premeditated murder.
“Accused one knew the Wednesday already that he wanted to kill the child and had planned it and took the tape to accused two’s home.”
Kaithlyn’s father, Johnnie Cloete, 40, shed tears outside court.
“I used to travel from Mamre each weekend to see her,” he said.
“She spoke to me that Saturday and asked me to take her with me.
“‘Dadda, wil jy nie vir my saam vat nie’, were the words she said to me.
“I told her I cannot without her mother’s permission,” the hartseer father said.
The matter has been postponed to 27 August for sentencing proceedings.