‘I killed Kaithlyn, but don’t have the guts to say how’

By VINCENT CRUYWAGEN

Convicted child-killer Jonathan Heyns, in mitigation of sentence, admitted he killed 5-year-old Kaithlyn Wilson and apologised to her family. But he couldn’t tell the court how he killed her.

There were emotional scenes in the public gallery in Court 6 in the Western Cape High Court on Tuesday, as Heyns made his admission. Judge Babalwa Mantane adjourned proceedings to allow Kaithlyn’s sobbing mother Yvonne and grandmother Sophia to regain their composure.

Asked by his lawyer Jan Burman to explain the relationship between him and the deceased, and the circumstances that led to her death, Heyns said he loved Kaithlyn very much and treated her like his own child.

“On the day of the murder Kaithlyn played with me and brushed my hair, and told me she loved me. She also gave me a picture and asked that I look well after it. My life is not the same without her, and not a day goes by that I don’t think of her.”

Under cross-examination, prosecutor Nadia Ajam asked Heyns whether he admitted to killing the girl, to which he said: “Yes, I admit that I killed her and she was innocent. I want to say I’m deeply sorry to her mother and grandmother, and ask that they forgive me.”

Struggling to find his words, Heyns said: “I don’t have the guts to tell the court how I murdered Kaithlyn.”

She was smothered to death on July 30, 2017.

Heyns’s co-accused August Pedro Lee-Swarts has been found guilty of being an accessory to murder. He pushed the wheelbarrow filled with rubbish – under which Kaithlyn’s body was hidden – to where she was dumped under a thorn bush.

The prosecution informed the court that Heyns had three previous charges of indecent assault dating back to 2009, that were later changed to rape. He had also raped three inmates while he was in prison. Cape Argus