‘Child killer’ deemed unfit to stand trial, sent to Valkenberg

THE family of Xavier Mitchell were left stunned in court after learning the child was stabbed ten times and that the accused won’t face trial, but will be sent to Valkenberg as a state patient.

The court heard chilling evidence on Thursday at the Parow Regional Court as investigating officer Sergeant Lorenzo Arendse read statements from several witnesses who were inside the home on the morning of little Xavier’s death.

The five-year-old boy from Bishop Lavis’s parents left him in the care of his nanny, who is also their neighbour and sister of the accused, Mervyn White, on August 7, 2024.

White’s sister said she had collected the children around 7.10am. Later that morning, while doing laundry in her bathroom, she saw her brother entering the house.

Court documents stated: “I saw him through the bathroom window next to the front room. I could not see what he was doing in the house. I only saw him when he was walking past with a knife in his right hand.”

She followed him outside, but as she came into the yard, White hit her on the head with his fist and ran off. She continued chasing him.

She added that as she chased him, White threw the knife in a neighbouring churchyard. A woman on the church property picked it up and handed it back to her. 

The sister said she returned to the house with the knife and then found Xavier lying in a pool of blood. She did not see any blood on White or the knife.

The court heard: “The child, Xavier Mitchell, was on his right side on the floor in the kitchen, bleeding from his mouth and the left side of his face.”

Xavier was rushed to a nearby hospital, where doctors told the family he had been stabbed in the back. A post-mortem later confirmed that the child died from ten stab wounds.

The woman who handed the knife back to White’s sister confirmed that she saw him walk past after throwing the knife, and also noted that she saw no blood on it.

White’s nephew and his girlfriend were sleeping in the house when the attack happened. They woke to a commotion.

The nephew said: “When I got up, I saw my mother chasing my uncle and throwing him with a stick, asking him to drop the knife. My girlfriend came out shouting that ‘Xavier was bleeding lying on the ground’.”

Although no one witnessed the actual stabbing and there was no direct evidence, the court ruled that on a balance of probabilities, White committed the act that led to Xavier’s death.

White has been declared unfit for trial due to mental illness and has been ordered to be taken to Valkenberg as a state patient.

Xavier’s mother, Sylvia, said she was shocked to hear for the first time in court that her son had been stabbed ten times.

She said: “I feel sad that (justice) was not really served because he [White] will be going to Valkenberg and lost my child."

Cape Times