NORTH WEST. – Carel Fouché (33) has been sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of his two-year-old step-grandchild, whom he assaulted in May 2025. The Stilfontein regional court heard the child sustained approximately twenty injuries.
Lindiwe Mabasa, NPA spokesperson, says Fouché smoked metamfetamine (crystal meth)with the child's grandmother on 15 May 2025 before the boy began crying during the night. Fouché became angry, woke the child and assaulted him. The following morning he approached neighbours for help and allegedly claimed he did not know what had happened to the child. Emergency services declared the child dead at the scene. The post-mortem examination showed the child had sustained blunt force injuries consistent with repeated blows with an object. Some injuries were also consistent with blows from an adult's open hand or fists.
The state argued that Fouché murdered a defenceless child who had been entrusted to his care and protection. The court also heard that Fouché had previous convictions, including for violent crimes, and that he had previously served four years imprisonment for housebreaking.
A probation officer's report found that Fouché could not be rehabilitated and that he was a danger to himself and society. Fouché pleaded guilty, but the state argued that this was not sufficient reason to impose a lighter sentence. The court accepted the state's submissions and sentenced him to life imprisonment. He was also declared unfit to possess a firearm.
This article is an automatic English translation of a Nuusflits article originally published in Afrikaans. Read the Afrikaans original.
