‘I don’t know how you can sleep at night if you still have a conscience.’
Durban – Phoenix triple murderer Colin Pillay, 47, was sentence to three life sentences in the Durban High Court on Friday for killing his lover and her two daughters in Phoenix last year.
The tow truck driver was also sentenced to three years for theft which Pillay committed to avoid detection.
Pillay murdered Jane Govindasamy, 45, and her daughters Denisha, 22, and Nikita, 16, in their Longbury, Phoenix, flat on September 20, 2018. Jane and Nikita were strangled to death, while Denisha was stabbed to death and hidden in the wardrobe. She was only found hours later.
Passing sentence, Judge Phillip Nkosi said Pillay “showed hard heartedness in the most brutal manner one could ever imagine”.
Nkosi told Pillay that by not admitting to his crimes, “nothing atones your awful mistake”.
“You killed people you professed to love,” the judge said calling Pillay “cruel”. “You looked into their eyes as you took the last breath out of them.
“You have shown a total disregard for the sanctity of human life. I don’t know how you can sleep at night if you still have a conscience,” Nkosi said.
The 47-year-old, dressed in a red shirt, displayed no reaction as he stood in the dock, hearing his fate. He crouched down to avoid being photographed as he walked down into the cells.
In finding him guilty on Thursday, Nkosi had rejected Pillay’s version of events as not reasonably true. He also rejected his alibi that he was out gambling when the murder happened.
Nkosi said the facts showed that Pillay was a scorned lover who was grasping at straws because his nine year affair with Govindsamy was ending.
Forensic DNA evidence put Pillay at the murder scene. “Four blood stains were found while some blood had your DNA, two samples matched Nikita. You could not explain how Nikita’s blood got into your clothes if you did not kill Jane and her daughters,” said Nkosi.
In addition, CCTV footage showed Pillay discarding a knife believed to be the murder weapon in the bushes in a nearby park. Cellphone records also showed Pillay was at the murder scene.
Forensic pathologists noted the three dead women all had defensive wounds and even Pillay sustained injuries consistent with these.
The Independent on Saturday
