Gotlhalosamang Gabaokelwe will face the hangman after the Court of Appeal...

Gotlhalosamang Gabaokelwe will face the hangman after the Court of Appeal, in Botswana, dismissed his appeal against his death sentence for the murder of his step-daughter, Ogomoditse Ndolo . However the Court reduced his death sentence for the murder of eight-month-old Kaone to 15 years’ imprisonment. Last year the Francistown High Court imposed two death sentences on Gabaokelwe for the murders of his girlfriend Keneilwe Ndolo’s two children: three-year-old Ogomoditse and eight-month old Kaone. He was also sentenced to 15 years imprisonment for Ndolo’s murder. Delivering the judgment on behalf of other Appeals Court judges, Justice Ian Kirby said Gabaokelwe’s crime was particularly heinous against baby Kaone. The Judge said even if he did not intend to kill the child, he certainly knew that she was resting on her mother’s back. She was discovered dead still strapped to her mother’s back in a pool of blood. However the judge said the benefit of the doubt, however tenuous, must go to Gabaokelwe; his sentence for the murder of Kaone should have been the same as that of the murder of Keneilwe since the offences were almost simultaneous. The court set aside the sentence of death for the murder of Kaone and replaced it with a sentence of 15 years’ imprisonment, to run concurrently with the 15 year sentence for Keneilwe’s murder. As for Ogomoditse’s murder, Justice Kirby said it fell into an entirely different category. In her case there was no question of an accident. “The appellant stated in his confession that, ‘I then hit the other child with the same rod for I thought she was going to remain a destitute.” Justice Kirby said it was a clear statement of deliberate intention to kill and it was a cruel and brutal act perpetrated on an innocent and defenseless child.