Family of murdered Maritzburg pensioner welcomes sentence
A KwaZulu-Natal man whose mother was one of three elderly people murdered at an old age home in Pietermaritzburg says the family is thankful the killer is behind bars.
Tim O'Connor's mother, Patricia was 92-years-old.
He says the family is satisfied with the sentence and hope Kershwin Goldstone can be rehabilitated in prison.
"By contrast with many other cases of a similar nature, this has been very quickly expedited from apprehension through to sentencing in a space of a month," he said.
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It has been just over a month since Patricia O'Connor was strangled to death.
22-year-old Goldstone was sentenced to life yesterday after pleading guilty to robbing and murdering O'Connor and two others.
Yesterday, the court heard the crimes were committed to feed his drug addiction.
Goldstone's advocate had argued in mitigation of sentencing that her client was abandoned at the Salvation Army when he was just 3-years-old and shipped off to Boys' Town when he was 15.
She maintained Goldstone's drug addiction reduced his moral blameworthiness to an extent.
The State, however, said the murders were some of the worst it had ever seen. It argued that the victims of the gruesome attacks posed no physical threat to Goldstone.