A father accused of murdering his two children was found guilty in the Grahamstown High Court yesterday.
Peter Shaw (36), who chose to say nothing to the court during the proceedings, has been ordered by Judge Jeremy Pickering to undergo psychological assessment before being sentenced.
A father accused of murdering his two children was found guilty in the Grahamstown High Court yesterday.
Peter Shaw (36), who chose to say nothing to the court during the proceedings, has been ordered by Judge Jeremy Pickering to undergo psychological assessment before being sentenced.
Shaw originally pleaded guilty, but changed his plea to not guilty on account of his alleged retrograde amnesia, saying he had no recollection of the murders.
The initial psychological assessments made at Fort England Psychiatric Hospital revealed that Shaw abused alcohol and exhibited antisocial personality traits.
However the assessment found him to be able to appreciate the wrongfulness of his actions and understand the proceedings against him.
Judge Pickering said that Shaw and his wife, who was working in Port Elizabeth around the time of the murder, had been involved in many arguments and at least one physical altercation.
On one occasion after a spat between the pair, Shaw threatened the lives of his wife and two children.Because of the threat, the children’s mother kept Shaw from seeing much of his children.
But during the Easter weekend of 2009, saying he had Easter eggs for them as gifts, Shaw was allowed to take his children home.
According to the indictment, on 17 April 2009, the accused tied three pieces of nylon rope to an iron pipe on the passage wall. Shaw hanged his fouryear- old daughter and seven-year-old son.
According to the judgement, the third noose was assumed to be for himself, based on a suicide-like message he had scrawled on his lounge wall Shaw’s brother found the two murdered children hanging in the doorways of separate rooms of the house.
He telephoned the police who were there in minutes, according to the court report. The judge reported that the arresting officer said he could not detect any alcohol use by Shaw at the time of the arrest.
There were no signs of a breakin, suggesting that Shaw was guilty. The court found that there was no reason to suspect anyone other than Shaw as the perpetrator.
A row of family members watched the proceedings as an expressionless Shaw kept his head down and rubbed his thumbs together.
The mother and grandmother of the victims openly cried as the judge recalled the facts of the case. Shaw is still awaiting sentence.
