'Come and get the corpses'Former cop on trial for children''s murder A former police constable is on trial for the murder of his two sons at Gobabis in 2014. 0 A former police constable of Gobabis allegedly called the police and told them to collect the bodies of his two sons after he had murdered them.The two boys, aged four and seven, were murdered on 25 April 2014.
Sergeant Sinvula last week testified in the Windhoek High Court that Albertus Ganeb further threatened to kill the boys'' mother and then commit suicide.
Sinvula told Judge Dinnah Usiku that he twice tried to call his former colleague but the latter, after heated exchanges, would just switch off his phone. It was then that he decided to go to Ganeb''s home.
Upon arrival he found the door open and the children''s bodies were lying on the floor. Ganeb was not in the house and Sinvula went looking for him.
At a later stage Ganeb called him back and said he must go to his house and collect the corpses.
“I killed my two sons. I look for my girlfriend and kill her and thereafter commit suicide,” Ganeb allegedly told the police officer who later arrested him.
Ganeb on Wednesday denied guilt on two murder charges and two counts of assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.
“I was heavily under influence of alcohol and cannot remember what happened on 25 April 2014,” Ganeb said in a written statement read on his behalf by his lawyer Titus Ipumbu.
The two murder charges are read in conjunction with the provisions of the Combating of Domestic Violence Act.
The assault charges relate to assaults he allegedly inflicted on his girlfriend, who was the mother of his two sons, during 2013 and 2014.
In October 2013 Ganeb allegedly hit Swartz in the face with his fists and prior to the death of their two sons Ganeb allegedly hit her on the head with a police baton.
On the night of 25 April 2014, Ganeb''s two sons were in his care at his house in Tswana Block, Gobabis. He allegedly attacked the seven-year-old boy and stabbed him at least four times in the head. The boy died of multiple open-skull fractures.
It is further alleged that Ganeb stabbed his four-year-old son six times in the body and head. The boy received hospital treatment at Gobabis and was later transferred to the Katutura State Hospital, where he died of his injuries on 1 May 2014.
The police launched a major operation to arrest Ganeb.
“It was a big operation where more than 20 police motor vehicles were deployed to search for the former police officer who violently killed his two minor sons,” Sinvula testified.
He said he found Ganeb walking between Tswana Block and Saamstaan in the Epako residential area.
“I don''t know what went on in the mind of the accused but this time around he was cooperative. When I told him to hand over any weapon in his possession he said he only had a cellphone and handed it over to me,” Sinvula said.
The trial continues.
FRED GOEIEMAN