[I am completely disgusted. The criminals should have been sentenced to death for murdering her sweetheart. It looks as if the man might have been sodomised or sexually assaulted in some way before they crushed his skull. Jan]

Yesterday, after the conviction and sentencing of the three men who had brutalised her and murdered her boyfriend, Michelle Milligan, 21, sighed with relief and felt she still had a chance to pick up the pieces of her shattered life and start over.

Milligan and her sweetheart, Anton Lourens, could never have imagined the terror that awaited them as they left an East Rand restaurant after a romantic dinner date on February 27 last year.

Anthony Leukus, Gerald Kubonie and Juandre Coquillon pounced on them at random as the two 19-year-olds left the Germiston restaurant, and for two hours subjected Milligan to gang-rape and horrific sexual abuse. Then they murdered Lourens, before inexplicably letting Milligan go.

Yesterday, the three were sentenced to prison terms ranging from 31 years to 103 years by the Johannesburg High Court. Leukus faces an effective 70 years in jail, Kubonie 103 years, and Coquillon 31 years.

Passing sentence, Judge John Horn lambasted Leukus, 18, of Douglas in the Northern Cape, and Kubonie, 19, and Coquillon, 23, both of Germiston, for their role in the murder of Lourens and abuse of Milligan. Leukus had been visiting his father in Germiston at the time the crimes were committed.

The court heard how Leukus and Kubonie ordered the couple at gunpoint to stop their car, robbed them of the car and valuables, kidnapped them and drove them to an open field. They raped and indecently assaulted Milligan, and repeatedly stabbed Lourens before crushing his skull with a stone.

Sentencing the three, Horn said: “Words escape me with which to explain your gruesome actions. You kidnapped them and they co-operated with you. You raped and sexually abused her for two hours. You infringed upon their rights. The only mercy you have shown was to spare her life.

“You murdered her lover. You terrorised them. In the end, the deceased was executed. He was the only child of his family. He did not do any harm to you.

“Leukus was instrumental in the attack. He stabbed him 20 times in his chest and his skull was crushed with a stone.”

After witnessing her rapists being sentenced and staring at them for the last time, Milligan took a bold step and faced the media to recount the gruesome events of that night. This is her story, told in calm and measured tones:

“We had just left a pizzeria after 9pm and were going home. They stopped us just a stone”s throw away from my home in Whitfield. The first accused (Anthony Leukus) raped me inside the car and then they drove us away.

“We went over a bend, and then accused No 2 (Gerald Kubonie) raped me twice. On the second time he used an object inside me, I don”t know if it was a golf club or a gun. He also sodomised me.

“Pointing a gun at us, they threatened to kill us. Anton was begging them not to kill me. After driving around for about two hours, accused No 3 (Juandre Coquillon) also raped me. They robbed us of our cellphones and jewellery.

“They took Anton away and dropped me off. I was covered in mud and only got help at the hundredth house I knocked on.

“The family that found me called my parents and I was rushed off to Roseacres Clinic, and attended to immediately.

“They called Arlene (McGeer-Wilton, a specialist forensic social worker) at midnight and she rushed to the clinic, and has been by my side since that day.

“I was discharged from hospital at 4am the following morning. By this time, I had been told that Anton was found dead. I was heavily sedated and for the first few weeks I could not sleep, even though I had taken sleeping pills.”

Source: The Mercury
URL: http://www.themercury.co.za/index.php?fSectio…br>