The Mpumalanga high court in Delmas convicted and sentenced Francois Pretorius, 45 of Rustfontein farm in Bethal to an effective 25 years’ imprisonment, after he was found guilty of the murders of Johannes Andries Beukes and his wife, Ibel.
Pretorius was sentenced on Friday after reaching a plea and sentencing agreement with the state where he pleaded guilty to two counts of murder.
Pretorius told the court that on March 18 2020, the victims visited him at the house he was renting in Rustfontein and they had coffee.
“While drinking it, a confrontational argument ensued. He suddenly assaulted the victims with fists and a torch several times.
“He loaded the victims’ bodies inside the boot of their vehicle, drove with them to an open veld then abandoned the vehicle near Bethal dam with the bodies inside,” national prosecuting authority spokesperson Monica Nyuswa said on Tuesday.
Pretorius then took the victims’ cellphones, wallets and jewellery and fled the scene.
The postmortem revealed that the cause of death was the injuries sustained during the attack.
The court found no factors to deviate from the prescribed minimum sentence.
TimesLIVE
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