MARIUS Nagel (23) was convicted in the Ramsgate High Court of the attempted murder of Neil Rose Willson and the murder of Ella Sophia Potgieter, fondly known as Elsie.
He was sentenced at Port Shepstone Magistrate’s Court yesterday (Wednesday) to an effective 18 years imprisonment.
After Nagel’s conviction the matter was transferred to the Port Shepstone Magistrate’s court for sentencing due to power outages at the Ramsgate High Court.
In August this year, he spent 30 days undergoing mental observation at Fort Napier Hospital. He was found to be mentally fit to stand trial and had the capacity to appreciate the wrongfulness of his actions at the time he committed the offences. Nagel pleaded guilty to the charges.
Judge Trevor Gorven sentenced him to 15 years’ imprisonment for the murder of Ms Potgieter who disappeared on November 13, 2014 and remained missing until November 18, when her body was found concealed on the beach.
In Nagel’s plea statement, he explained that he met Ms Potgieter on the beach the previous day while he was fishing.
“I was drinking while fishing on the beach when Ms Potgieter asked me to accompany her to pick up shells. We argued when I asked her to have sex with me,” his plea read.
“I grabbed hold of her and dragged her into the nearby bush. I strangled her, she lost consciousness, as a result she eventually died. I panicked. I took her clothes and hid her body in the bushes. I took her clothes and buried them in the beach sand. I was aware of what I was doing at all times,” he stated.
Judge Gorven further sentenced Nagel to seven years’ imprisonment for attempted murder, four of which are to run concurrently with the 15 years’ imprisonment imposed for the murder.
The attempted murder charge arose from a stabbing incident at a pub in Southport on October 24, 2014. In this plea statement, Nagel confessed to stabbing Mr Willson with the intention of killing him. He also admitted that alcohol may have played a part in his actions.
Mr Willson was stabbed in the face, shoulder and head.
The court heard how the incident has changed his life for the worse and how it had left him physically and psychologically scarred. His eye permanently sags, he suffers from ‘pins and needles’ in his hand and the tendons in his shoulder have been damaged. His social life and business have suffered severely. He is also to scared to go out anywhere without his two dogs which have been trained for purposes of his rehabilitation.
A pastor, who has worked with prisoners for some 20 years, testified that Nagel’s expression of remorse was genuine and that it was not a case of regret for being caught or self-pity.
The defence approached the state counsel, Advocate Korne Radyn with a proposal that after the sentence was imposed Nagel was prepared to meet with the relatives of Ms Potgieter and Mr Willson to apologise face-to-face for what he had done to them.
