Two plead guilty to fatal attack
2005-06-09
TWO men have pleaded guilty to burglary and robbery of well-known Paarlite Lionel Hellig in his home in March 2003.
They insist, however, that they are not guilty of murdering the 83-year-old retired land surveyor. Hellig’s body lay undetected in his lounge for five days.
Aubrey Plaatjies and Ferdinal Julius of Paarl East confessed
to the robbery, with the motive of gaining access to Hellig’s car.
A tumbledrier, welding machine, tools and music centre were among the items stolen.
Hellig was alone in his Berea Street home on Monday afternoon March 31 when he was surprised by the burglars.
He put up a fight, but was bound and gagged and had died of suffocation by the time the men left with the house keys as well as the keys to his car.
The accused and accomplices returned to pack Hellig’s car with the stolen items. The car was later found in Worcester.
Plaatjies, who has a record of burglary and theft, had been summoned to the parole office in Main Street that Monday morning.
It is only a five minute walk from the office to the Hellig homestead.
According to pathologist’s evidence in the Cape Town High Court the victim had died within minutes of being overpowered and gagged. Decomposition had set in by the time the body was discovered.
In a statement shortly after the arrests, one of the accused admitted to the robbery and accompanied officers to the murder scene.
Video material of the reconstruction of the attack was shown in court.
Julius’s relatives have been supporting him since the start of the trial nearly a month ago.
Plaatjies’s family members have recently also started following court proceedings.
Two witnesses who admitted to fetching the car packed with the stolen goods, and later selling the vehicle, testified in court last week.
They maintained that they never entered the house and might be granted immunity should their testimony be of value to the state’s case.
Julius told the court that he had second thoughts about “the old man that we had tied up”.
But when, five days later, he arrived at the homestead to untie him, he saw the Police and crime scene tape.
“Then I realised the man had died,” he testified.
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