‘Atrocious assault’ on Outjo murder victim, judge says

An outjo resident who died in March 2022 after she had been severely beaten by her boyfriend was subjected to “an atrocious assault”, a judge said before sentencing the killer to 30 years’ imprisonment yesterday. Findings recorded after a post-mortem examination of the body of Outjo resident Davie ‘Bokkie’ Hanes (28), bloodstains observed in the room of Hanes’ boyfriend, Piet Gamaseb, and a metal crowbar found in the yard at Gamaseb’s home provided compelling insight into the circumstances in which Hanes met her death, judge Claudia Claasen said during Gamaseb’s sentencing in the Windhoek High Court. The evidence received by the court during Gamaseb’s trial established that Hanes had been “subjected to an atrocious assault involving repeated blows to her head”, Claasen said. She said the evidence left little doubt that Hanes “endured a severe ordeal before succumbing to her injuries”.

A clear and unequivocal message that conduct like the deadly assault on Hanes cannot be tolerated has to be sent out with Gamaseb’s sentence, Claasen stated. Claasen convicted Gamaseb (51) on a charge of murder, committed with a direct intention to kill and read with the provisions of the Combating of Domestic Violence Act, in mid-September. She found that Gamaseb inflicted fatal injuries on Hanes, who was his domestic partner, when he assaulted her at Outjo on 12 March 2022. Hanes died as a result of head injuries, which included skull fractures and brain injuries, Claasen heard during Gamaseb’s trial. Claasen recounted in the judgement in which she convicted Gamaseb that Hanes’ body was found lying on the verandah of her mother’s house on the morning of 12 March 2022, after Gamaseb had knocked at Hanes’ mother’s door and told her he was looking for Hanes. The body was covered with a…