68-year-old in court for sword murder
Suspect is the father of the victim's ex-friend.
The 68-year-old suspect who allegedly murdered his daughter’s previous neighbour with a sword last December, will appear in the Roodepoort Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday 10 August.
The man was arrested after the murder of Mark Orton, 43, in Sundowner on 13 December 2015, but the court ordered that he be released since his Miranda Rights were not read to him at the time of his arrest. He was rearrested on 13 May and appeared in court on 18 May where he was released on bail. When he appeared in court again on 4 July the case was postponed to 10 August, pending DNA results.
According to Joey Jacobs, a family member of the victim, the murder was committed shortly after the friendship between the two neighbours, being the daughter of the suspect and Orton, had turned sour. After a period of bickering between the two she moved out of her townhouse (neighbouring the victim’s). Orton decided to accept employment in Cape Town but a few weeks before he was to leave, his ex-neighbour’s father, who owned the townhouse next to his, moved back in. On the fateful Sunday morning Orton was busy washing his vehicle when the suspect came out of the house and stabbed him with a massive knife, that looked more like a sword. Orton still managed to call his sister but by the time she arrived he was already unconscious. At 3pm he passed away in the Milpark Clinic.
“I stabbed him. I did not call for help. If you want help you better phone someone,” the suspect allegedly told a bystander on the scene.
Do you perhaps have more information pertaining to this story? Email us at roodepoortrecord@caxton.co.za (remember to include your contact details) or phone us on 011 955 1130.
Also read:
Sword murderer in court on mitigation of sentence
Pupil, 16, murders grandmother with sword
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