Durban – Ashley October has been sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of his former wife, Charlene October.
Charlene was found dead in her home in July last year.
Post-mortem results revealed she had been strangled.
October was arrested shortly after her murder.
In addition to murder, October was found guilty of attempting to obstruct the course of justice by tying the rope used in the killing of Charlene to the roof beam to make it look like she had committed suicide.
According to the NPA, October was sentenced by Judge Roshenie Alley in the Western Cape High Court on Friday.
His accomplice, Tashwell van der Rheede, was sentenced to an effective 15 years.
October planned to kill his wife to benefit from an insurance policy. The couple had been divorced since 2015, but October still ran a tuckshop from his wife’s house.
During the trial, two people testified how they had been hired by October to kill his wife. He has apparently been trying to kill her since 2011.
Both men, who refused to carry out the job, said they had been promised part of the insurance payout.
They both had worked with October.
Charlene’s oldest son, Ethan Telemachus, testified how he found his mother’s body in a pool of blood.
Van der Rheede denied killing Charlene saying that he was only told to break into the tuckshop and make it look like a robbery.
Charlene’s sister, Alicia Jooste, said the family had been torn apart since her sister’s death.
IOL