What pushed Pakkies over the edge?

ELLEN Pakkies returned to the scene of the crime where she had strangled her son. Her story, as relayed to legendary South African lensman David Goldblatt, was just as sorrowful as understanding the reasons why she killed her child.

Photographed on the same bed where Pakkies strangled her son Abie in 2007 in Lavender Hill, Cape Town, she shared her soul-destroying story on what pushed her over the edge during a photo-shoot and interview with Goldblatt.

Several Capetonians are featured in Goldblatt’s book Ex-Offenders at the Scene of the Crime, which was launched in Johannesburg last month. Goldblatt was fascinated with the psyche of criminals, wanted to understand, without judging, what made them turn to crime.

Goldblatt and his wife Lily, themselves victims of crime,