Three people were sentenced to life in prison by a South African court on Thursday for the kidnapping, torture and murder of a British couple who were ambushed while collecting rare plants. Rachel Saunders, 64, and her husband Rodney, 73, were taken in the Ngoye Forest, 150km north of Durban, in February 2018. Their bodies were later thrown from a bridge into crocodile-infested waters.
The gang’s ringleader, Saffydeen Aslam del Vecchio, 46, had identified the couple as a “good hunt”, the court heard. After the killings, he texted his wife Fatima Patel, 35, and their lodger: “The prey are in hellfire.” The victims were tied, tortured for their bank details, then battered and stabbed with a machete-like blade, a knife and a heavy object. Their bodies were trussed inside sleeping bags and dumped off the Tugela River Bridge.
“Three ISIS-linked gang members sentenced to life for kidnapping, torturing and murdering British botanists Rachel and Rodney Saunders in 2018”
Del Vecchio, Patel and Malawian national Ahmad Mussa were each given two life terms for murder, plus 15 years for robbery and four for theft. The sentences will run concurrently. Del Vecchio received an additional five years for an unrelated charge of malicious damage to property.
The trio had been convicted last month of double murder, kidnapping and armed robbery. Police said the couple’s stolen bank cards were used to buy items near Durban, and 734,000 rand (£42,000) was drained from their accounts. Officers found camping equipment, laptops, phones and jewellery belonging to the Saunders at the home of del Vecchio and Patel after their arrest on 15 February 2018. Mussa was arrested three weeks later.
Rachel and Rodney, who held dual South African and British citizenship, ran a seed business in Cape Town. They were on a research trip in KwaZulu-Natal province, travelling with their equipment and camping gear. They were last seen alive on 10 February 2018. Rodney’s body was found by fishermen in the Tugela River and identified weeks later; Rachel’s remains were identified on 13 June.
Patel had previously been arrested alongside her brother in a 2016 anti-terrorism raid near Johannesburg, but neither was charged. She and del Vecchio were alleged to have hoisted an Islamic State group flag in the reserve where the couple disappeared. Judge Esther Steyn, delivering sentence at the Durban High Court, noted the state had relied on circumstantial evidence. The killers will now spend the rest of their lives behind bars.