Saldanha child killer sentenced

JADE WITTEN

Court Reporter

“CECIL, where is my daughter’s body?”

A Saldanha mother asked this of the man convicted of raping and murdering her daughter, Monteshca Kekana, 10, as she faced him from the witness stand in the Vredenburg Regional Court yesterday.

An emotional Vanessa Kekana was testifying against Cecil Kockrell, 35, in sentencing proceedings.

Monteshca, who lived in Diazville in Tabakbaai, Saldanha, disappeared at about 3pm on May 21, 2009. She was last seen walking with Kockrell towards Tabakbaai beach, where she was later undressed, raped and strangled.

When Kockrell, who confessed to a close friend, was arrested hours later – he was still in possession of Monteshca’s takkies. The girl’s body has not been found.

Kekana told the court she had longed for more than two years to know where her daughter’s body was so she could give her a dignified burial.

“If (Kockrell) can just tell me so that I can bury her body. If she is alive she must come home. He must just say where she is,” Kekana testified.

She asked the magistrate, Jan van Zyl, if she could ask Kockrell where her daughter’s body was.

Van Zyl allowed Kockrell’s lawyer, Nigel Samuels, to ask his client to answer the question.

A few minutes later, Samuels, speaking on behalf of Kockrell, said: “(He) says he doesn’t know where she is and also that he loved the child.”

The court heard during the trial that Monteshca often visited the home of Kockrell and his parents and called him boeta(big brother).

After a 10-minute adjournment, Van Zyl delivered sentence.

He said Kockrell had failed to show there were substantial and compelling circumstances to warrant a deviation from the prescribed minimum sentences of 15 years’ imprisonment for murder and life for the rape of a minor.

“The body was never found, but I am convinced of your involvement in the crime. The evidence, though circumstantial, is incriminating against you,” Van Zyl said.

“I am convinced that you planned the murder and that you caused (Monteshca’s) death and raped her,” he said.

Life imprisonment would have been imposed if Kockrell had been charged under a different section of the Criminal Procedure Act, Van Zyl said.

Kockrell has a previous conviction of indecent assault.

He was sentenced to 15 years in jail for murder and life in prison for rape. The sentences are to run concurrently. He was also declared unfit to possess a firearm.

Kekana said she was satisfied with the sentences.

jade.witten@inl.co.za