Krugersdorp woman‘s face smashed by attacker with cooking pot

Annemarie Nolte, assaulted with cast-iron cooking pot: every facial bone broken, brain damaged

Dec 3 2009 – KRUGERSDORP. 52-year-old homecrafter Mrs Annemarie Nolte is fighting for her life after a man attacked her with a cast-iron cooking pot which broke every bone in her face and caused critical brain injuries, reports Beeld journalist Magdel Fourie.

After the attack, husband Sakkie, photographed by Beeld,  left with the assault-weapon, and who works at a security company, also received two threatening phone calls from a man on his home-phone while the police were present, they confirmed. Mrs Nolte’s entire face has been pulverised in the attack: her cheek-bones, eyebanks and jaw bone were smashed to pieces -- and she’s now fighting for her life at Krugersdorp hospital after suffering critical brain damage. There have been no reports that anything was missing, but the police describe the attacker as a ‘robber’.

Neighbours heard schreams, shattering glass:

Worried neighbours stood waiting in the driveway of his Wentworth Park home when he arrived from his job at 10pm in this Afrikaans-suburb because they had just heard loud screams and sounds of shattering glass from the Nolte home. Mr Nolte said he rushed around the house to the backdoor, and just as he arrived there, an unknown man rushed out through a sliding door which had its window cracked wide open. The man jumped across the backfence and fled. 

Mr Nolte didn’t pursue him: he rushed inside – and found a house covered in blood smears before he located his wife in a pool of blood in the hallway.

“Her face was terribly swollen, her eyes tightly closed. She was choking in her own blood,’ he said. She could still talk, complained that her arm was sore and constantly tried to get the blood wiped off her face. She lost consciousness several times while they were waiting for the ambulance.

Mr Nolte said blood-smears showed that the attacker dragged his wife with her legs from the kitchen. Police captain Chris Heyns said  they identified a cast-iron tripod cooking pot as the weapon used to beat up Mrs Nolte, and that a brick was used to break open the back door.

Captain Heyns said the police were present when Mr Nolte received two threatening phone calls after the attack, in which a man had told him in Afrikaans that ‘he had given his wife a good beating, and that Mr Nolte would be next. During the second call, the man said: “I wait for you at the bridge.”

Nolte said it was very strange for the attacker to know his private home telephone number. “I am angry and heart-broken. This is my wife, my friend, my confidente who was beaten up like this. But revenge does not belong to me, the Lord does not sleep and I surrender to Him.’ The couple have been married for 22 years. the police did not provide a detailed description of the man. http://www.beeld.com/Content/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/1928/f8c7f1ccfbf14c739c93fe7d7b0564e2/03-12-2009-01-02/Driepootpot_breek_elke_been_in_gesig

• Emergency 10111 number out of order:
• It was also reported by the SAPS today that its emergency 10111 number is out of order ‘due to technical problems due to a storm’ and that crime-victims will have to call ‘their nearest emergency centre’ instead. http://www.nuus24.com/Content/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/1479/73a892d6c00947c59ffd216239594765/03-12-2009-11-37/10111_in_Gauteng_buite_werking

  The 10111 emergency number is seriously defunct anyway even when it does work: the police minister Nathi Mthethwa confirmed in reaction to a parliamentary question that for instance, it takes between 20 to 42 minutes for the 10111 call-centre to dispatch police units to any crime emergency after receiving a call. http://www.nuus24.com/Content/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/1479/a8b214132d4949f49153f3bec1866f15/02-12-2009-03-45/Skok-onthullings_oor_10111-inbelsentrum