After a gruelling four months of court appearances, the family of Lekita Moore can finally pick up the pieces of their lives, after Cameron Wilson was on Friday found guilty of killing the 18-year-old Valhalla Park girl and four other victims. The verdict was delivered by Judge Chantel Fortuin in the Cape Town High Court.

Wilson was convicted of 13 of the 15 charges he was charged with. The charges included five counts of murder, four counts of attempted murder, two counts of assault and rape, one count of the possession of an illegal firearm and one count of the possession of illegal ammunition.

The 20-year-old became a suspect in the case after the young girls body was discovered in a field in 8th Avenue, Valhalla Park, in September, 2016. Moore’s body was found badly mutilated – her throat had been slit, sections of her private parts cut out, and she had been stabbed 98 times.

Commenting on the verdict, chairperson of the Bishop Lavis CPF Graham Lindhorst says he is satisfied, particularly for the sake of the family of the deceased.

“We are very, very happy to have found a guilty verdict, because I think it helps with the closure of that family, because they have been going through a lot of trauma since the day she was killed.”

Given Wilson’s account of the incident, in which he blamed murdered 20-year old Xavier Bester, whose body was found in the same area only hours after Moore’s slaughtered body was discovered; Lindhorst notes that he is happy that the state was successful in securing a conviction.

“I remember that he tried to manipulate things and put it on a dead guy, but the state successfully stated their case.”

Wilson further blamed Bester for the rape and stabbing of two other victims, Abigail Plaatjies and her friend, 16-year-old Stacey Lee, both of whom were recalled by Wilson’s lawyer, Advocate Mohamed Sibda, earlier this month.

Wilson and a 17-year-old accomplice attacked Plaatjies and Mohale, in Heinz Park, but was found not guilty of raping Mohale. The incidents predate Moore’s murder, occurring in April 2015. He also raped Dawney Davids.

Fortuin found Wilson guilty of the murders of Alfonzo van Rooyen, Toyher Stober and Ernest Erasmus in Philippi in 2014.

He was also found guilty of the attempted murders of Nicole McEwan and Roseline Lackay. McEwan and Lackay were both attacked on the same night as Moore’s murder.

While communities continue to battle crime within the Cape Flats, Lindhorst says that residents are taking the safety of their children and their communities into their own hands.

“What we doing in communities now is to firstly educate communities, especially parents as well. Then we have interventions that we put in place not only in Valhalla Park, but also in other areas, [such as] Bishop Lavis, where our communities through their neighbourhood watches do patrols and assist the police where they can. but education is the biggest thing,” Lindhorst added.

VOC 91.3fm