Married father-of-two pleads guilty to killing his lover with 4-pound hammer

Finding voodoo dolls in her bedroom sparked the deadly argument

- YOSHINI PERUMAL

A CHATSWORTH married father-of-two has been sentenced to 23 years in prison for the pre-meditated murder of his lover, following a violent argument which was sparked by the discovery of four voodoo dolls in her bedroom.

In the Durban High Court last Wednesday, Sugendren Rodney Naicker, 35, pleaded guilty to killing his lover, Vyaksha Sookdew, with a four-pound hammer on December 21, 2023.

Sookdew's decomposed body was discovered wrapped in black plastic bin bags in the bathroom of her Havenside home, on December 25, 2023.

Her body was identified by a relative only through her belly ring and clothes.

At the time of her death, Sookdew, 35, was an instrumentation technician at AECI Mining Chemicals in Amanzimtoti.

During Naicker's bail application in January last year, the court heard that he was unemployed and had been struggling with drug addiction for about six months.

He did not support his wife and children, and had no previous convictions or trouble with the law, the court was told.

Naicker was arrested on December 24, 2023, when quick-thinking petrol attendants at a fuel station in Bayview called police after they noticed that he was the same person who had filled fuel (in his brother's vehicle) and fled without paying his bill.

Naicker had returned to the same fuel station later that day to purchase airtime, but with Sookdew's car, when he was spotted.