David Best

Shot his then-girlfriend a few times in the abdomen – the abdomen which contained his infant daughter who was ready to be born.

But he’s begging for God’s forgiveness, so it’s ok.

Really.

We’ll see in the end I suppose.

“God cannot forgive me. I will burn in hell for this”, baby-murder accused David Best told two East London pastors after the Valentine’s Day killing of his unborn infant, a court has heard.

Details of the confession were disclosed by the Reverend David Gernetsky, one of the two Quigney Baptist ministers who heard it, after East London High Court unanimously ruled it was permissible as evidence.

Best’s defence advocate, Terry Price, had unsuccessfully tried to stop the details of the confession being heard by the court, arguing that it was privileged and should not be divulged.

But following Judge Johan Froneman’s ruling, Gernetsky told the court he had a 25-minute meeting with Best at the Cambridge Police Station on February 23 last year – the day he was arrested for the attack on his heavily pregnant ex-girlfriend Melissa Shelver.

Shelver was shot twice in the stomach, resulting in the death of her unborn but full-term baby, Jenna-May.

“He told me this (the killing) shouldn’t have happened…that he wanted to reverse it, but he couldn’t,” said Gernetsky.

Best then told him, without going into much detail, how the shooting was “arranged”. “He mentioned he met with his next-door neighbour and asked him if someone wanted to get rid of somebody, what should they do.” Gernetsky said he asked Best – who has subsequently pleaded not guilty to the charges against him – why he wanted to hurt someone that he loved? “He said Melissa was not the problem but that the baby was the problem.”

During the meeting – held behind closed doors – Best also instructed Gernetsky and his colleague, Pastor Bobby Pate, to convey his apologies to Shelver and her family and to his parents. “He wanted us to go and tell the family that he was sorry for what he had done – that he tried to reverse it, but couldn’t.”

Gernetsky asked him: “Do you want God’s forgiveness?”

“He said: ‘God cannot forgive me. I will burn in hell for this’.”

Gernetsky said Best changed his mind when he told him that “Jesus died for sins”. “I prayed a sinner’s prayer with him and in my opinion there was a genuine response of repentance and there was weeping. “He asked God to forgive him. It was part of healing.”

Gernetsky said his motive for accompanying Pate to the police station that day was a desire to give spiritual guidance and “because I have a son of the same age as David Best, I had compassion for his family going through this”. He said he had not anticipated Best’s confession. The meeting, which had “an unconfidential tenor” ended with a handshake and Best again asking them to convey his apologies to Shelver. “He said: ‘Please tell Melissa I’m sorry – that I tried to reverse it but couldn’t’,” Gernetsky added.

The police learned about the confession after Gernetsky told his packed congregation on the following Sunday, three days later, that he had visited Best, who had asked for forgiveness.

Police Inspector Deon Coetzee, a member of the church, was at the service. Police director Gary McClaren also testified how he had “consoled” a “very emotional” but “co-operative” Best, who allegedly made another confession to a Captain Dewing.

Testimony by district surgeon Dr Basil Wingreen brought Shelver to tears yesterday with details of the injuries that killed her baby.

Wingreen said that the severity of Jenna-May’s injuries would not have allowed her to live for more than a few minutes. Had she lived she would have been a paraplegic.

Click HERE to read the story from the Sunday Times.