'God said they needed to be killed'

A DURBAN man accused of murdering both his parents said yesterday they were sacrificed because "God said they needed to be killed".

Hardus Lotter, 23, told the Durban high court he believed he should sacrifice anything for God, even if it meant killing his parents.

Lotter has pleaded not guilty, along with his sister Nicolette, 29, and her then boyfriend Mathew Naidoo, 25, to murdering Maria Magadalena (Riekie) Lotter, 52, and Johannes Petrus Lotter, 53, at their Westville home on July 19 2008.

Petrus was strangled and his wife stabbed.

The Lotters said they were under the influence of Naidoo, who told them he was the third son of God.

Hardus said he believed he was part of a cult and that Naidoo was the leader who issued instructions.

Hardus was threatened with baldness, castration and even that he would get prostate cancer, while his sister's punishment was that her breasts would be cut off.

Asked by his sister's lawyer, Theuns Botha, why he never resisted, he said he was afraid of disobeying God.

Asked if satanism was involved, Hardus said there were strange rituals and Naidoo had anointed their foreheads with oil.