27 October 2007
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My partner bitches about my coffee addiction
Man killed over 'bad' cooking
15/10/2007 22:38 - (SA)
Hilda Fourie, Beeld
Pretoria - A woman has been convicted of murder in the Pretoria Magistrate's Court, after stabbing her life partner to death with a knife because he hadn't prepared her egg to her taste.
Magistrate Kallie Bosch ruled on Monday that Hendrika Cecilia Coetzee, 51, of Elandspoort, west of Pretoria had murdered Gavin James.
Coetzee stabbed James, a paraplegic, in the heart with a knife at about 22:15 on April 2 2005.
When Daniël Nel, who was a lodger in their home, gave evidence, his version of that night's events was accepted by Bosch, who rejected Coetzee's testimony.
Alcohol played a role
Nel testified earlier that James had woken up Coetzee after preparing food for her.
According to Nel's testimony, the egg was either too hard or too soft, he couldn't remember which.
"She asked him why her egg hadn't been cooked properly," Bosch summarised Nel's evidence.
"The accused raised her voice when talking to the deceased. He told her not to shout at him.
"She stabbed him with the same knife she had used to eat her food earlier."
Nel pulled the knife out of James's chest and tried to get him out of the house. He asked Coetzee to help, because his one leg was amputated below the knee and he had to hop around on the other one.
Magistrate Bosch said alcohol played an important role on the day in question.
James and Nel had apparently drank a quarter bottle of whisky that afternoon. Coetzee had been drinking beer.
Coetzee testified earlier that she had not seen who had stabbed James.
The lounge and kitchen where the incident took place consisted of one small room.
"She couldn't have been that much under the influence, because she remembered after the incident where the telephone was, to make a phone call," Bosch said.
"There was an argument, and a scuffle. The accused stabbed the deceased in the chest, once."
The case was postponed until next month for a pre-sentencing report.
12 October 2007
07 October 2007
Word of the Day
Example sentence: Antoine usually worked with the boutique's most elite clientele and so tended to adopt an orgulous air toward more "ordinary" customers.
Did you know? “In Troy, there lies the scene. From Isles of Greece / The princes orgulous, their high blood chaf’d, / Have to the port of Athens sent their ships.” Thus Shakespeare began the Trojan War tale _Troilus and Cressida_, employing “orgulous,” a colorful word first adopted in the 13th century from Anglo-French "orguillus." After the Bard's day, "orgulous" dropped from sight for 200 years; there is no record of its use until it was rejuvenated by the pens of Robert Southey and Sir Walter Scott in the early 1800s. Twentieth-century writers (including James Joyce and W.H. Auden) continued its renaissance, and today "orgulous" is an elegant choice for proud writers everywhere.
