D-DAY: Murder-accused Duncan Hoorn will soon learn his fate
Image: Bheki Radebe/ANA Studio
MURDER-ACCUSED Duncan Hoorn’s fate is in the hands of Acting Judge Amanda van Leeve after the State urged the court to convict him of the 2024 kidnapping and murder of his wife, Chantel Pasqualle-Hoorn, and of defeating the ends of justice.
Pasqualle-Hoorn was allegedly beaten into a coma at the couple’s Hanover Park home on 27 June 2024 - the night she was found by Hoorn with a man she was believed to be having an affair with. She died in hospital with severe head injuries on 28 July 2024.
Hoorn has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Final arguments were heard in the Western Cape High Court, sitting in the Wynberg Regional Court, on Friday, with State prosecutor Advocate Renée Uys telling the court the matter did not require complicated legal reasoning.
She wysed that in her view, it was “one of the simplest matters” when it came to deciding what happened to Pasqualle-Hoorn.
Uys also used the word “enormity” to characterise Hoorn’s alleged conduct not in the sense of something being huge, but in the sense of extreme wickedness, cruelty, or monstrous conduct.
Uys said three medical experts had testified about her injuries and submitted that the evidence showed a traumatic brain injury ultimately led to her death.
While Hoorn has denied assaulting Chantel, Uys argued that the evidence against him was overwhelming and that he had failed to provide a reasonable explanation for how she sustained her injuries.
Van Leeve, however, questioned the State on how it had established the kidnapping and defeating-the-ends-of-justice charges.
Uys said the kidnapping charge related to Chantel allegedly being unable to leave home after her sister was accompanied to the residence with two police officers the night she was booked into hospital.
On defeating the ends of justice, she relied on the surrounding circumstances and expert evidence that there had allegedly been cleaning inside the home.
For the defence, Advocate Gilbert Jose argued that both those charges had not been proved.
“The defeating the ends of justice charge is far-fetched. I am of the opinion that the State has not proved anything there,” he submitted.
On murder, Jose focused on the medical evidence and argued that questions remained around Chantel’s treatment and cause of death.
Van Leeve indicated she was not yet ready to make a decision and would do so on Monday 7 September 2026.
“At this point there are quite a few things I need to look at,” she said.
COUPLE: Chantal Pasqualle with her husband Duncan Hoorn.
Image: Supplied
