Drug killer mom given 280 hours community service..

Ellen Pakkies strangled her 20-year-old son, Adam, a tik (methamphetamine) addict, on September 12 2007, when she snapped after years of abuse and violence. (From the Sunday Times)

FORGIVING herself for killing her drug-addicted son is tough, says Pakkies, the Cape Town mother who was sentenced for the murder.

Pakkies cried with relief when she was handed a three-year suspended sentence.

A Wynberg magistrate ruled that she was a victim of a system that failed her.

“I’m free, but I’m not free in myself,” she said. “I know what I did was wrong. I will make peace [with it ]. I just need to forgive myself."

“I have forgiven my child. I need to feel that he has forgiven me. It’s still difficult.” (Lady you killed the child.... how is he supposed to forgive you now that he is dead?)

Pakkies said the family home was quiet without Adam. “We miss Adam. He was also a caring person. It’s just the drugs that messed him up. He liked music and dancing and could make us laugh. He used to talk to me by singing,” said Pakkies.

Magistrate Amanda van Leeve said in her judgment that Pakkies was not “prison material”.

“You were a victim. Imprisonment will not be appropriate. You are in a position to plough back into the community,” she said.

“It’s your duty to see that there is never a repeat [of this kind of murder],” said Van Leeve.

Pakkies is to serve 280 hours of community service, but it is yet to be determined what she will do. She has said she wants to offer counselling to mothers and family of drug addicts in her community. (Put the person who has killed her child out there as a counsellor for other people in the same position is hardly good thinking... but that's just me.)

Another condition of her sentence is that she should not be arrested for murder, attempted murder or assault. (Especially of the remaining children... if you know what I mean.. "Momma's Home!!!")

Van Leeve said Pakkies was a “loving mother”, but “abused victim”. Strangling her son was “an act of desperation” after the tik addict had taken all her clothing, abused her and stabbed her in the hand. (Which is all fine and well until you consider that he was sleeping when she tied the rope into a noose and slipped it round his neck)

“The system has failed you. Society needs to take responsibility. Where do people like you turn for help? They call the police and there’s no help. (Eh? Society needs to take responsibility?! Not the person who tied the rope around the child's neck? And what is this... question time? Did you really have to KILL the child?) “Keeping drug addicts in [state] custody is not a solution to the problem we face in South Africa,” said Van Leeve. (And the magistrate finally says something which is true...)

But she added that the “message the court needs to send is [that] murdering the addict is not a solution”. (So what message is the court sending here?)

The full gory details of the ice cold murder are surreal, with Ellen waking the child with a noose around his neck, so she can talk to him! (The Argus):_-

For the second time that morning she stands over her boy. She is flooded with thoughts – thoughts of the sweet baby he was and the monster he has become. The rope is still in her hands.

She ties it into a noose. She slips it over his neck. Abie wakes up. He blinks back his confusion.

“Mammie, what now?”

He feels the noose around his neck. Suddenly Abie realises what’s happening. He fights back. He grabs a plank off the floor. He lunges at his mother with the wooden board, but he can’t reach her.

Ellen is composed. The rope isn’t tight – she only wants to talk. (What a great start to the conversation.)

But Abie looks scared. He swears at her. He calls her a p**s (c*nt) like he has so many times before. She hates it when he swears.

Ellen tells her son to put the plank down. He refuses.

“Abie, why don’t you appreciate what I do for you? I will go out of my way to do whatever for you.” ("whatever"... like now... I will kill you)

It goes on with her throttling the life out of the child, going inside, washing, getting dressed and then going to work, before confessing to the cleaning lady at work. Tik (methamphetamine) is REALLY dangerous... especially if mom is only going to get 280 hours of community service for killing her child.