German School Pretoria caretaker Gerhard Sippel was jailed for 11 years yesterday for bludgeoning and strangling teacher Ina Halfter.
Sippel, 50, was sentenced to 13 years’ imprisonment, of which three were conditionally suspended, for the April 2009 murder of Halfter, 28.
Sippel has insisted that he had waited outside Halfter’s flat in the east of Pretoria that day, but left without seeing her because he wanted to commit suicide. Sippel said he was devastated when Halfter broke up with him because she had reconciled with her ex-boyfriend in Germany, and thought she might be pregnant with the man’s child.
Halfter’s parents, Matthias and Elke, travelled from Germany to hear the fate of their daughter’s killer, but did not comment on the sentence. – Sapa