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INLSA<\/p>\n
Smith<\/p>\n
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After five years and dozens of adjournments, 82-year-old Durban man Harold Smith has, in the Durban High Court, admitted his guilt in connection with the murders of his tenants. <\/p>\n
Malcolm \u201cGeordy\u201d Acton-Tuck, 60, and his wife, June, who had been tenants on Smith\u2019s Waterfall property, were found shot dead in their home in November 2007. <\/p>\n
Smith had lived in the main house on the property and the couple had rented the garden cottage. <\/p>\n
Smith pleaded guilty in terms of a plea and sentence agreement which was confirmed by Judge David Ntshangase yesterday. <\/p>\n
The elderly man said in his plea that he had been involved in rental disputes with the Acton-Tucks and his relationship with them had become acrimonious. The plea said the acrimony developed between Smith and the Acton-Tucks owing to an ongoing dispute over the couple\u2019s apparent failure to pay the agreed rental. <\/p>\n
Their withholding of rent was in response to Smith\u2019s perceived failure to pay the monthly electricity bill timeously and adequately maintain the leased property. <\/p>\n
Smith said that on the day of the murder he became enraged when June told him that she would not pay the rent until the bank foreclosed on the home. <\/p>\n
He said as a result of these utterances and his frustration, which had built up over several months, he drew his firearm and shot at June at least four times. <\/p>\n
He then went into the Acton-Tucks\u2019 home and shot and killed Malcolm. <\/p>\n
Smith said he was \u201ctruly remorseful\u201d for his conduct and wished to convey his apologies to the family of the couple. <\/p>\n
He was sentenced to 10 years in jail, wholly suspended for five years, on condition that he is not convicted of murder or attempted murder during the suspension period. <\/p>\n
He was also placed under house arrest for three years and would only be allowed to attend church on Sundays and go to doctor\u2019s appointments. <\/p>\n
Smith was also ordered to do community service for 16 hours a month and undergo counselling. <\/p>\n
He was also deemed unfit to possess a firearm. <\/p>\n
June\u2019s nephew, Steve Christy, said he was glad that the case had been concluded. <\/p>\n
\u201cMy faith in the justice system has been partially restored, although I would have preferred a harsher sentenced to have been imposed.\u201d <\/p>\n
Relative Sylvia Tuck also told the State that she was satisfied with the sentence. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
INLSA Smith After five years and dozens of adjournments, 82-year-old Durban man Harold Smith has, in the Durban High Court, admitted his guilt in connection with the murders of his tenants. Malcolm \u201cGeordy\u201d Acton-Tuck, 60, and his wife, June, who had been tenants on Smith\u2019s Waterfall property, were found shot dead in their home in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[8275,953,2143],"class_list":{"0":"post-11420","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-durban","8":"tag-newspaper","9":"tag-the-mercury","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11420","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11420"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11420\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}