Duran Constable, a frequent offender, was sentenced this week in the Cape Town High Court to a total of 76 years in prison for two separate crimes, one of which was the murder of Ingrid Koch, a farmer’s wife from the Swartland.
Ingrid (65) was murdered last year on a farm near Moorreesburg in the Western Cape. Her husband, Frans (69), was seriously injured during the attack.
The Koch couple were found on their farm Klipheuwel with stab wounds on their bodies on 5 April last year.
Ingrid was attacked with a knife in the farmhouse on the day in question after Constable entered the farmhouse and took a knife from the kitchen. She died at the scene.
Frans was rushed to a hospital after he intervened during the attack on his wife and suffered several stab wounds.
Capt. FC van Wyk, police spokesperson, says Constable was 17 years old when he had his first run-in with the law in 2005. Constable was charged with theft as a teenage boy at the time.
Then Constable tried to rape a woman early last year.
Van Wyk says Constable entered a house in Velddrif on 23 January last year and tried to rape a 29-year-old woman. The woman grabbed a knife to chase Constable away. That’s when Constable took the knife from the woman and stabbed her twice in her right upper arm with it.
The woman finally fled to the neighbors and the police were called. Constable was arrested at the scene on the day in question.
Constable was charged with attempted rape and burglary before being released on bail.
Then he attacked the farm of the Koch couple.
Constable was finally sentenced in the Cape Town High Court on Monday to three years in prison for burglary and 15 years in prison for attempted rape in relation to the rape case.
As for the attack on the Koch couple, Constable was given a further three years in prison for burglary, 10 years for aggravated robbery, 15 years for attempted murder and 30 years for murder.
