Drugs, drink and murder
July 02, 2004 Edition 1
Barbara Cole
A combination of Ecstasy and alcohol, coupled with a borderline personality disorder - having severe mood swings - turned an otherwise normal teenager violent, a court heard yesterday.
And while people of similar submissive characters who were "pleasers" and followers did not necessarily commit serious crimes, it was "more probable" in Wesley Neil Julyan's case as he wanted to be accepted by his friends and thus "overstepped certain boundaries", expert witness Dr Catharina du Plessis, who based her findings on a series of tests with Julyan, told the High Court Southern Circuit sitting in Ramsgate.
Julyan, 19, of Mtwalume on the South Coast, overstepped those boundaries early last year when he and a former co-accused Jaco Strauss, now 22, murdered Kenneth Gary van Aardt, 52, of Amanzimtoti, a Good Samaritan who had given them a lift.
Van Aardt was strangled with Strauss's shoelace and then buried in a shallow grave near Julyan's house. The case has become known as the "SMS murder" after Strauss sent text messages to his British-based former girlfriend about the murder.
She contacted the police, who tipped off Interpol, which led to Port Shepstone detectives being called in.
Van Aardt's decomposing body was then found, with the shoelace around his neck, 68 days after he was murdered.
Du Plessis said that 30% of the population would experience negative side-effects (personality changes) after a combination of Ecstasy and alcohol - and about 15% would become violent.
Plea bargain
Strauss pleaded guilty to murder and stealing Van Aardt's company car and was sentenced to 15 years under a plea bargain deal.
Julyan, who pleaded not guilty to murder and robbery with aggravating circumstances - he said he was under the influence of Strauss as well as two Ecstasy tablets and alcohol - was found guilty in April. He will be sentenced today.
Julyan told Du Plessis that although he was the one who had "hinted" that they take Van Aardt's car, he "had no idea that it would end up in murder", even after he was "asked (by Strauss) to hold the victim by his arms", Du Plessis said in a report.
Defence advocate Des Parmanand said the court faced the "formidable problem" of finding an appropriate sentence, bearing in mind that Strauss had already received 15 years under the plea bargain deal.
He asked the court for an element of mercy and suggested a 12-year sentence.
State prosecutor, Advocate Dorian Paver, said that in the wake of the plea bargain deal, in which the court in Strauss's case had simply "rubberstamped" what had been previously agreed, the controversy around this legislation may well "come to the fore".
He said the crime was "a classic expedition" which had to be carried out by more than one person.
"This was a wicked crime and the widow was left for 68 days wondering where her husband was. That's cruel," he said.
