[imagesource: IOL / File picture]

For Capetonians of a certain age, the Sizzlers massacre – because that’s what it was – will forever be etched in their memories.

On January 20, 2003, Adam Woest and Trevor Theys entered Sizzlers, a Sea Point male-to-male massage parlour on Graham Street, and carried out a hate crime of monstrous proportions.

They tied up 10 men, slit their throats, shot them, doused them in petrol, and left them to die. Nine men did, while one victim managed to escape with his life.

Both Woest (above, at the time of his trial) and Theys refused to testify and were handed multiple life sentences. Theys has since passed away, and last September Woest appeared before the Parole Board.

He had another hearing more recently, reports News24, and will not be paroled because “he has a high risk of re-offending”:

During Woest’s parole proceedings, the board found that the inmate “seems not to care” about the crimes and did not show remorse. He was further found to lack responsibility consistent with someone who had been rehabilitated…

“The offender, during the parole sitting, demonstrated lack of insight and self-awareness into his own criminal behaviour and the impact of his crime on the part of the victim,” [said correctional services spokesperson Singabakho Nxumalo].

The sister of one of the murdered men has petitioned against Woest’s release, asking for President Ramaphosa to revisit why people sentenced to multiple life sentences serve their time concurrently and not consecutively.

Leigh Visser also wrote to Justice and Correctional Services Minister Ronald Lamola, decrying what she says has been a total lack of effort with regards to locating secondary victims to gather victim impact statements.

For now, at least, Woest will remain behind bars. He is serving nine life sentences for nine counts of murder, along with attempted murder, robbery, and possession of ammunition.

Despite that sentencing, Nxumalo stated in March that Woest was first eligible to be considered for parole in March 2016, with the law stipulating a minimum detention period of 12 years and four months.

Speaking to TimesLIVE in March, Marlene Visser, the mother of one of the murdered men, said she met with Woest and Theys after they were sentenced:

In Theys, she said, she saw humanity and remorse. But with Woest, she found only emptiness…

Marlene added that she did not believe Woest was rehabilitated.

“I do not believe that you can ever rehabilitate, even if you wanted to because your personality … your psyche does not allow for rehabilitation, or to reform, or for you to conform to the norm,” she wrote.

Judging by the findings of the parole board, she was spot on.

Donke Spore, an Afrikaans series where Sandra Prinsloo and Jan Groenewald investigate the violent trail that murderers leave behind, focused on the Sizzlers massacre in an episode titled Die Wil om te Lewe.

It features footage of an interview with Quinton Taylor, the lone survivor of the attack, who recounts the horrors of that night in detail.

[sources:news24&timeslive]