JUNE 14, 2002 - The High Court of Johannesburg found two men guilty of murdering 77-year-old farmer Martin Joseph Walsh on the arm Ingwelala, Hekpoort on December 12, 2000.

 

Walsh had just returned with Christmas gift purchases for his family when -- the court accepted the prosecution's evidence --  he was ambushed at his farm gate, tied up and stabbed and slashed to death while lying defencelessly on the ground by his murderers Elvis Busha Moletshane (24) and Alpheus Lucky Mulutsi (19). The two murderers had just been accepted as workers on a nearby farm.
 
Walsh was found with his hands tied up behind his back. An Okapi knife and panga knife were later identified as the murder weapons by Mulutsi.
 
Evidence was that Walsh's damaged Peugeot -- not robbed for gain, but only used as a temporary escape vehicle -- had been recovered by the  police just a few kilometres away from his farm shortly after the attack - and that his car keys and cellphone were found in the possession of Moletshane. Submitted evidence was also accepted by the court that one of the murderers had used the cellphone to phone the farmer's wife Ruth in an attempt to lure her out of the house.
 
The judge also accepted the evidence that the two farm attackers had also intended ambushing the elderly Mrs Walsh: the farmer's cellphone record and her testimony both revealed that the murderers had tried to get the old woman to the crime scene by phoning her under the pretence that her elderly husband had wanted her to bring medication for "heart" problems" -- but her husband had already been slaughtered by then, according to the provided medical testimony. The prison sentence still has to be handed down.

 

Source: http://www.news24.com/Beeld/Randse_Beeld/0,4127,3-68_1199653,00.html