Update
SEDGEFIELD NEWS - The 43-year-old strangler of an 89-year-old Groenvlei resident was sentenced to 20 years' imprisonment last month when the attacker was found guilty of robbery with aggravating circumstances in the Knysna Regional Court.
According to police spokesperson Sergeant Chris Spies, Delisha Hansen – who attacked, strangled, robbed and left 89-year-old Groenvlei resident Janet Rendell for dead in her home on 5 December 2017 – was sentenced on 2 November. Hansen was arrested in mid-July this year.
Knysna station commander Colonel Atwell Metu congratulated the investigating officers, commending them for conducting a thorough investigation. "We hope this sentence will serve to deter those would-be criminals – crime does not pay," Metu said.
Rendell relayed the scene that played itself out to Knysna-Plett Herald shortly after the attack. Despite some bruising on her rib cage, her one arm and her neck, she seemed as fit as a fiddle during the visit.
Hansen, who Rendell said appeared in her Groenvlei home "as if from thin air", went straight for her (Rendell's) handbags the day of the attack, and without a word started rummaging through it.
The fragile Rendell then grabbed at some money the intruder had taken from a handbag, who then went straight for Rendell's neck.
"She squeezed harder and harder and started backing me up toward the front door. I could hardly breathe and my legs started giving way. At this point I had almost collapsed onto the rug near my front door," Rendell recounted at the time.
Last year, during a visit from the Knysna-Plett Herald, Janet Rendell demonstrated to journalist Stefan Goosen how her female attacker tried strangling her, both hands around the neck and thumbs digging in. Photos: Stefan Goosen
As the intruder squeezed tighter, Rendell's "quick thinking" kicked in. She said she thought her attacker was going to kill her for sure, so Rendell "just went limp", dropped her head to one side and let her mouth hang open a bit. "I pretended to be dead," said Rendell. After dragging Rendell's seemingly lifeless body to a nearby bathroom, Hansen left with an undisclosed amount of money.
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