‘I caught my wife in bed with her lover’
A Port Elizabeth father, whose 9-year-old daughter testified that she saw him stab his murdered wife, claims the wife was having an affair.
|||Port Elizabeth - A 45-year-old father of three who is accused of stabbing his estranged wife to death told the Port Elizabeth High Court on Monday how he wanted to take his children into his care prior to the death of their mother in October 2013.
The man, who cannot be named to protect the identity of his minor children, said that as a couple they were facing marital problems and that he had come home one day to find his wife in bed with another man.
The State alleges that the 45-year-old father, who was employed as a technician at a municipality at the time, stabbed his estranged wife repeatedly on her upper body, head and back whilst their two children, a six-year-old girl and an 11-year-old boy, were present in their home.
It is further alleged that prior to her death an argument ensued between the two over a sum of R49 000.
Previously, the man’s daughter, who is now 9-years-old, testified as to how she peeped out from behind her bedroom door to see the lounge area where her parents were arguing.
The little girl claimed that she had seen her father using a knife to stab her mother.
While the child painted her mother to have been helpless, her father described his estranged wife on Monday as a woman who was having an affair.
“I arrived home and found my wife in my bedroom sleeping with another man. I said to them that I don’t want to bother them and then I left,” he said.
The man then stated that he sought out social workers at the Motherwell Victim Support Centre. He claimed he did this because he wanted to maintain his children legally.
He said that both him and his wife met with the social workers when he told them that after the affair he did not want to reconcile and all that he sought was help to get a court date so that he would be able to maintain his children.
He added that he went with police officers to the family home to inform his wife that she needed to attend court proceedings at the New Brighton Magistrate’s court. According to him, she refused to acknowledge this.
“We waited for her and she arrived. When we got there, the children were alone. She said that she would not sign the documents and then grabbed the female police officer and threw her out,” he claimed in court.
The father of three added that he subsequently met up with his wife, who was in tears, and had asked him to take her back.
“We sat in her Nissan vehicle , she told me I should come back to our marriage, she asked me to come home and that the children where asking where I am.”
He also claimed that he was in the process of looking for a three bedroom house.
He said that his children wanted to stay with him at the time because there mother was always leaving them alone.
The trial continues.
African News Agency
* Use IOL’s Facebook and Twitter pages to comment on our stories. See links below.