Louisa Koekemoer accused alongside her husband, Kobus Koeokemoer, for killing her three-year-old daughter Poppie van der Merwe, is seen in the Pretoria High Court during the trail in October 2017. Picture: Jacques Nelles
The trial of three-year-old Poppie van der Merwe’s mother and stepfather will only proceed in the High Court in Pretoria in April.
Judge Bert Bam in December last year convicted the little girl’s mother Louisa, 47, and stepfather Kobus Koekemoer, 44, on charges of murdering Poppie and abusing her and a five-year-old boy for months.
Their trial was postponed to next week, but will now only proceed on April 18 because of the illness of one of the defence advocates.
The tiny blonde girl had already died of severe head injuries caused by blunt force trauma by the time she was taken to hospital in October 2016.
She had old and new injuries all over her body and her hair had been shorn off to the skin.
The five-year-old boy testified that Koekemoer had pushed Poppie’s head into the toilet bowl and flushed it on the morning before her death, whereafter she stopped moving.
The parents blamed each other for inflicting Poppie’s fatal head injuries, but both said her head had been hit against the wall.
Witnesses said they had seen bruises on the children and a neighbour reported hearing beatings and the children screaming at night.
Poppie was forced to walk around with a broken leg for two days before it was put in a cast.
Bam said during judgment the evidence was overwhelming that the two defenceless young children were repeatedly assaulted and abused over a long period and that Poppie had sustained the head injuries while in their care.
Poppie’s head was repeatedly bumped against a wall in the days before her death, causing her to lose consciousness, or “play dead” as the accused described it.
There was no proof that either of them did anything to protect the children or Poppie on the day of her death.
Bam expressed concern that very little was done, despite numerous reports to the Orania social council that the children were being abused.
The doctor, social worker, teachers and church minister for some unknown reason failed to protect either of the children, certain people tried to shift the blame and it could even be argued that these people were accomplices, he said.
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