Joshua Petersen stands with his parents, Bernadette and Trevor, outside the courtroom at the Durban Regional Court, united in their grief and anger after the lenient five-year sentence for the boy who left him paralysed.
Image: Karen Singh
JOSHUA Petersen's family is left heartbroken after the perpetrator of a brutal stabbing at Westridge High School in Durban that left him paralysed received only a five-year sentence.
The child offender accused of attempted murder received the sentence to be served at the Ekuseni Youth Correctional Centre in Newcastle, in terms of Section 276(1)(i) of the Criminal Procedure Act, IOL reported.
Due to the age of the accused, the case was heard in camera, with only Joshua’s parents permitted inside the courtroom.
Outside the Durban Regional Court, Joshua’s parents, Trevor and Bernadette Petersen, struggled to contain their grief and anger over the sentence, which they felt amounted to a painful injustice.
Trevor said, his voice raw with emotion: “The law has done us down. My son is permanently like this, for life, and they’ve given the culprit a five-year sentence. It's like they are saying, go and do this again after five years.”
He spoke of the unbearable daily pain his son endures. “We don't know the pain he is in every day that he is supposed to be walking and living like a normal 18-year-old. He is bedridden for life. It's painful for us; it's hurtful; our wound is open, and they put more salt in it. They are stabbing us more than what this boy did. They are kicking us down; we are on the floor.”
Unable to hold back her emotions, Bernadette began sobbing uncontrollably as she shared the news with family members waiting outside.
Later, speaking with composure, she expressed her disappointment. “I’m extremely upset. My son doesn't have only five years in a wheelchair; he has the rest of his life in a wheelchair, and five years is just not enough. The law has no justice at all, and it’s sad, it's very, very sad,” she stated, adding that she expected a harsher sentence.
Joshua’s grandmother, Faith Ngcobo, who was also at the court, was equally devastated by the outcome. “I’m not happy at all; five years is too little for what that boy did to Joshua. He cut his life short,” Ngcobo said.
She questioned whether the sentence fit the crime. “How can a person get five years when a person is paralysed? He can't even walk or help himself? We are not happy as a family; we are not happy at all. It seems as if it's foul play.”
She said Joshua’s parents have been suffering and fighting for their son from the start, when he was taken to the hospital.
“It has been stressful, it is very sad, there is no justice in South Africa; this is not fair,” she stated.
The incident, which happened on January 29, 2025, left Joshua, a pupil at Westridge Secondary, paralysed from the neck downwards. He was stabbed twice, once in the neck and once in the abdomen.
It was previously reported that Joshua’s doctor, Dr Ramendhra Naidoo, confirmed that he is quadriplegic and will not regain the use of his four limbs.
His desire for closure motivated Joshua to travel to the court, overcoming several mobility challenges, to face the boy who stabbed him.
However, the weight of the sentencing has taken a toll. His mother revealed that Joshua could not sleep the night before, suffering panic attacks as he anxiously awaited the sentencing.
Upon hearing the news, Joshua stared out of the window unable to find the words to express his feelings.
For the Petersen family, who have stood by Joshua through months of hospitalisation and gruelling physiotherapy, the legal process has added another layer of trauma to their ordeal.
They maintain that the sentence handed down does not reflect the severity of the crime or the life-altering consequences for their son.
“The system of the law and this government is b***t. I don't know what to call it. I'm hurting at the moment; we are all hurting as you can see, we don't know what to do from here,” Trevor stated, echoing the family’s sense of despair.