18 years in jail for brutally stabbing to death wife

DURBAN: A 37-year-old Indian-origin man, who stabbed his wife 45 times last year after suspecting her of being unfaithful, has been sentenced to 18 years in jail.

The Durban High Court sentenced Dhamendra Heeralall, a father of two who lived in Phoenix, after he pleaded that he was driven to the murderous deed by his wife's infidelity.

Heeralall, who apologised to his in-laws and his young children, told the court that he first suspected his wife, Preteshnee, 33, of being unfaithful when he discovered a photograph of his wife and another man in a 'very intimate embrace' in June last year.

He confronted his wife about the photograph and she told him the person was an old school friend who insisted on being photographed with her. His wife insisted that she was never intimate with the man and she had no contact with him.

Heeralall said on the day of the murder in June last year, his wife had received two phone calls from the man. He became very angry and went to his house but the man was not at home. 

He took his wife to the Durban Harbour where she confessed that she had slept with the man a month earlier.

"At that stage I became very emotional and angry and did not like what I had heard. I picked up the knife, which I kept in the side of my bakkie, and stabbed Priya repeatedly."

Heeralall said after he was arrested he became very depressed and tried to kill himself on two occasions.

Despite his plea in mitigation, the High Court ruled that he should serve an effective term of 18 years as wife and children abuse was on the increase in South Africa.

The court said the heavy sentence should be a warning to other wife abusers.