Conviction
On 20 August 2008, Harmse was charged with one count of murder and three counts of attempted murder at the Krugersdorp Magistrate's Court. He was later sent to the Sterkfontein Psychiatric Hospital for mental health evaluation. On 25 October, after two consecutive months of mental health evaluation and two postponements of the court date, Harmse was ruled to be mentally fit by Magistrate Joachim Nortje.
The case was transferred to the South Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg for trial in front of Judge Gerhardus Hattingh. On 14 April 2009 Harmse pleaded guilty to all four charges, and on 10 October he was sentenced to twenty years' imprisonment.
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“My first reading of Tolstoy affected me as a revelation from heaven, as the trumpet of the judgment. What he made me feel was not the desire to imitate, but the conviction that imitation was futile.”
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