Iuze Mukube

Windhoek High Court Judge Dinah Usiku yesterday found a Rehoboth resident accused of strangling his former intimate partner to death guilty of murder and two other offences.

In her ruling, she found that there was no doubt that the accused, Henry Murphy (46), committed the crimes that he was charged with.

She convicted him on three counts, including housebreaking with intent to murder and murder read with the provisions of the Combating of Domestic Violence Act and defeating or obstructing the course of justice or an attempt thereto.

The charges are in relation to the death of Christina Beukes (36) on 3 March 2023 in the district of Rehoboth. It is alleged that shortly before the death of Beukes, she and Murphy were in a romantic relationship that she had ended.

It is alleged that the incident culminated from the deceased declining invitations by the accused to have coitus while socialising with friends in a room at a local hotel.

The State alleges the refusal left the accused feeling insulted, resulting in him breaking into her lodgings. He allegedly lunged at Beukes and strangled her until she died and subsequently used a blanket or cloth to wipe away his footprints at the scene.

He pleaded not guilty to the charges, denying all the allegations by the State.

Murphy, however, claimed he and Beukes were still in a romantic relationship at the time of the incident. One police inspector testified that Murphy told him he strangled Beukes after she told him to go and have sex with his own mother, which made him feel bad.

The inspector said Murphy also told him that, during the attack, he approached Beukes while she was sitting on the bed, jumped on her and grabbed her neck with both hands.

“The deceased was asking him to stop,” the officer added, but Murphy allegedly kept pressing for about 20 minutes until Beukes stopped kicking and pushing him away.  Beukes died from manual strangulation.
Medical evidence showed that samples found under Beukes’s left fingernails matched Murphy’s DNA as the middle contributor, second only to Beukes. 

Judge Usiku found that Murphy’s defence appeared to be an alibi but noted that it was raised only during his defence and not during the testimony of State witnesses.

Murphy claimed he left the room where he and his friends were socialising, drove away from the local hotel and never broke into Beukes’s room or killed her.

The judge found that, at the time of the incident, Murphy knew Beukes had died; his intention was to kill her and he made sure she was dead before returning to his room and sleeping.

“It is a notorious fact that a human neck is a vulnerable part of the body, and to press one’s neck persistently would result in the victim’s death, as she could no longer breathe.”

The judge said the circumstances of the attack and the injuries to Beukes’s neck left no doubt that Murphy intended to cause her death.

On the final count, she said there was overwhelming evidence against him, including proof that Murphy exited Beukes’s room through the same window he had used to enter and that there was a trail of dragging marks from the window to his door.

Having considered all the evidence, Judge Usiku found no doubt that Murphy committed the offences and convicted him as charged.