Pensioner walks free in wife-killing case

TANIA BROUGHTON

Barely a day goes by without retired chief provincial traffic officer Tony Brooks, 70, saying he is sorry for shooting his chronically ill wife of 40 years.

“I know of no one who is more remorseful. He is half the person he was,” his son, Gary, a policeman, said yesterday after his father was sentenced to six years’ imprisonment, suspended for five years, for the murder of his wife, Joan, four days before Christmas in 2008.

Gary Brooks – who had been at his side at every court hearing – shielded his father from the media yesterday, saying he was “too emotional” to give an interview.

Instead he faced the questions himself and described the pain his family had gone through when his “fairytale mother” – with whom his father had fallen in love at first sight – fell ill and when her condition deteriorated so far that she became partly bedridden and completely reliant on her husband, who was becoming physically frail.

“We went to so many places (to try to have her admitted for care). I would make applications and hear back two years later. In fact, I am still waiting for a response from one of the homes.”

There were few affordable places “and it is true that care for critical ill people is enormously expensive”.

Gary Brooks said it had not been easy for him to accept what his father did, but he now forgave him.

“I loved my mom and I miss her. I am also a dedicated police officer who took an oath 22 years ago that the law applies to everyone.

“This has been difficult for me… but it took (the prosecuting authority) a while to make a decision. I don’t believe there was animosity in wanting to pursue the charge. I believe there was a degree of humanity in the decision.”

Tony Brooks pleaded guilty before Acting Judge Jeff Hewitt in the Durban High Court in a written plea in which he took full responsibility for his actions.

He described how he had been driven over the edge that morning when he attempted to help his wife out of bed in the Pinetown home where they had lived for most of their married life.

She fell and lay on the floor for hours while he made several calls for an ambulance that failed to come.

Sentencing him, the judge told Tony Brooks he was a “victim of extreme circumstances”.

“This case is as sad and tragic as it is unique and extraordinary. Imprisonment is not called for and would totally destroy the accused,” he said.

It was unlikely that he would commit another crime.

Gary Brooks said that at one stage during the sentencing he thought he was going to faint.

“I understood every word of it… there had to be some deterrence. One cannot excuse the wrongfulness of the act, but one also cannot condemn somebody.

“Most people, even the media, have been fairly supportive.

“For my dad, he said it was like living with a knife in his gut. He condemns himself more than everybody else does.

“I hope now that the trial is over we can all get to a healing stage.”