Life behind bars for man who killed brother and girlfriend’s father

A Northern Cape man was sentenced to life imprisonment for killing his brother over a pair of shoes and, two year’s later, his girlfriend’s father when he tried to protect his daughter.

The 32-year-old Christoffel Samuel Irion was sentenced to life at the Northern Cape High Court in Upington after he was charged with two counts of murder and assault.

Irion stabbed his brother to death in November 2019. Then, in February 2021, he killed his girlfriend’s father – also with a knife.

Argument over shoes takes a fatal turn

According to National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) regional spokesperson Mojalefa Senokoatsane, Irion and his brother Jacques Jacobus Irion were at their parental home on the afternoon of 2 November 2019.

The brothers started arguing because Irion wanted Jacques to take off his shoes. Jacques, however, refused.

“Samuel took a knife and stabbed his brother in the back. The brother ran outside to seek help, and when a neighbour tried to intervene, he was also stabbed in the head by Samuel,” Senokoatsane explained.

Jacques died on the scene, and Irion was arrested. He was incarcerated for 11 months before the matter was struck off the roll due to incomplete investigations. 

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Father killed trying to defend daugther

On 27 February 2021, Irion visited the home of his girlfriend, where he found his girlfriend, her aunt, and her father, Jacob van Wyk.

He then instructed his girlfriend to accompany him, but she refused.

“Samuel and his girlfriend’s father started to argue as the father tried to defend his daughter. It was during this disagreement that Samuel took a knife and stabbed Jacob van Wyk, who died on the scene. The police were called, and he was arrested,” Senokoatsane said.

Maximum sentence: ‘He did not kill one person, but two’

The NPA said that state prosecutor Sue-Ann Weyers-Gericke argued in court that Irion should be sentenced to a maximum sentence applicable for such serious offences, as he did not kill one person, but two and injured another.

“He killed his brother for a pair of shoes and killed a father who was trying to defend his daughter. He did not only show a lack of remorse but lacked empathy because he killed two innocent people without taking into consideration the loss his actions would bring to the two families.”

In sentencing, he was sentenced to 15 years on count one of murder, five years on count two of assault with the intent to do grievous bodily harm, and life imprisonment on count three of murder.

Closure to victims’ families

“The National Prosecuting Authority envisages that these sentences will bring closure to the families of the victims, who lost their loved ones so mercilessly in the hands of the one they trusted,” Senokoatsane said.

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