NATIONAL NEWS - The man who murdered Cape Town toddler Courtney Pieters apologised to her mother for what he had done, the Western Cape High Court heard on Tuesday.

Mortimer Saunders at the end of his defence counsel’s questions to Juanita Pieters, the mother of murdered three-year-old Courtney Pieters, asked that his counsel tell her that he is sorry for what he had done to her child.

Pieters, after a long pause, and looking right at Saunders, said: “I have forgiven Mortimer but I will never forget.”

On Monday, Saunders had admitted to killing the toddler after giving the child ant poison.

Explaining the presence of the ant poison, Saunders’ defence counsel said the accused did everything in his room and even used it as a kitchen and cooked.

However, Pieters replied: “There was never ant problems in the house. The only problems we had were with cockroaches.”

Pieters earlier told the court that she recognised Saunders as the man who was seen on CCTV footage dumping the body of her daughter,k but admitted she denied knowing him as she was in “shock”.

Pieters said when she was asked by police if she knew the man who could be seen in footage dumping the little girl’s body in nearby Epping Industria she lied and said she did not recognise him.

Read more on the Caxton publication, The Citizen.