Tommy Williams was convicted in the High Court in Kimberley, the seat of the Northern Cape division, of three murders committed over twenty-one years. The first was in 1987, when he was a minor, and the last in 2008. The court sentenced him to two life terms plus 10 years.
Martha Botha was 8 years old and a neighbor of Williams in Galeshewe, the township on the edge of Kimberley. She died in 1987. Williams was a minor at the time, and no charge was brought in the following years.
Thabang Bihi was 13 and a friend of Williams. He died in 2004 in Warrenton, a town in the Northern Cape. Williams was a suspect in the case, but police and prosecutors judged at the time that the evidence was not enough to bring him to trial.
Norman Watermeyer was 28 and lived in Roodepan, a suburb of Kimberley. He died in 2008. Williams was again a suspect, and again the evidence was not sufficient to prosecute him at that stage.
The cases came back when a detective of the South African Police Service reopened the unsolved files and became the investigating officer in the Watermeyer matter. To bring the 1987 death into the inquiry he worked from a death certificate, which gave him a date, and used it to trace the contemporary newspaper coverage. He also went through police files that had been dumped at a station, to recover the original docket.
The head of the police investigative psychology unit gave evidence linking the three killings.
Williams stood trial in the Kimberley High Court. The prosecution had to rely on circumstantial evidence in the case of Martha Botha, because of the time that had passed since 1987. The court convicted him of three murders and imposed two life sentences plus 10 years. The names of the counts as the court framed them, the name of the presiding judge, and the date of sentence are not on record. No appeal is on record.
Before the convictions, Williams was a suspect in the 2004 and 2008 cases but was not prosecuted for either at the time. A further suspicion that he was involved in another Kimberley killing about four years before 2008 did not reach trial, because the prosecutor declined to take the case forward. That matter is not part of any conviction.
1987: Martha Botha, 8, dies in Galeshewe; Williams is a minor.
2004: Thabang Bihi, 13, dies in Warrenton; Williams is a suspect, no prosecution.
2008: Norman Watermeyer, 28, dies in Roodepan; Williams is a suspect.
After 2008: a police detective reopens the cases and links the 1987 death.
Kimberley High Court: convicted of three murders; sentenced to two life terms plus 10 years (date not on record).