Cape Town – Western Cape National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Eric Ntabazalila said “This conviction follows the State declining to accept the accused’s guilty plea when he confessed to Plaatjies’s murder.
Phillip April – the accused and Plaatjies’s ex-boyfriend confessed that he was romantically involved with Allison Plaatjies.
And that on October 26, 2019, she arrived at his friend’s place, where they were watching rugby and drinking.
He claims that Plaatjies persuaded him to go with her to her flat, as she had brought him something to eat.
April also claimed that Plaatjies was never happy with him drinking alcohol, the she told him that she was going out with her friends.
He got infuriated and an argument broke out between the two when April asked Plaatjies why she had taken him away from his friends when she knew that she would be going out with her friends.
When the argument escalated, April grabbed Plaatjies by her throat and choked her before he went to the kitchen to pick up a knife, with which he stabbed her.
When the knife broke he got another one and slit her throat.
April then took off his tracksuit pants, which were stained with blood, and threw them in the shower. He left the flat to go sleep at his mother’s place. April stated.
But State advocate Rene Uys rejected April’s claim because she believed his story was not the entire truth and lacked vital evidence proving that it was not a premeditated murder.
The State advocate looked around for five witnesses who gave a different story and testified that the accused and the deceased were no longer in a romantic relationship during the murder.
“The accused requested to see the deceased on 25 October 2019, but she refused.”
“He then showed up at her work, Cederberg Primary School, bringing her lunch and requesting her keys to her flat under the pretence that he wanted to do her washing.”
With the help of the witnesses called by the State, advocate Uys proved that April and Plaatjies had an argument outside the friend’s place.
They drove together to her flat, where he beat her up while sitting on top of her, went to fetch a knife and stabbed her.
The knife broke, so he fetched another one and slit her throat.
Not only did he slit her throat, the accused is said to have also bitten parts of her face. Dr Linda Liebenberg, who conducted the post-mortem of Plaatjies stated.
Meanwhile, the accused omitted the bulk of injuries he inflicted on her in his guilty plea, though he does not deny the killing.
Advocate Uys also proved that the accused stole the deceased’s vehicle.
April drove to Graafwater and Citrusdal with a friend in the car of the deceased, where he was arrested on October 28, 2019, on their way to Clanwilliam.
The case has been postponed to December 1, 2023 for sentencing.
