Suspects in South African gay massacre get multiple life terms

A South African court on Tuesday sentenced two men to nine life terms each for the brutal slayings of nine men at a gay massage parlor in Cape Town last year, Agence France-Presse reports. While sentencing waiter Adam Woest, 27, and taxi driver Trevor Theys, 44, for the massacre at the Sizzlers massage parlor, a crime that sent shock waves throughout the country, Judge Nathan Erasmus said the men had shown "utter savagery." Woest and Theys were sentenced to an additional 20 years each for attempting to murder another man at the parlor, 15 years each for armed robbery, three years each for illegal possession of firearms, and another two years each for possessing ammunition. Theys was also sentenced to three years in prison for stealing a firearm. "The offences of which you have been convicted represent utter savagery and extreme callousness," Erasmus said. "On evaluating the facts and your conduct, the inference is inescapable--your claims of remorse are not genuine but rather akin to self-pity." Woest and Theys went on a killing spree at Sizzlers in the Cape Town suburb of Sea Point after robbing both clients and masseurs. The men were found bound, with their throats slit and bullet wounds in their heads. The trial began in early March, with the accused blaming each other. Quinton Taylor, the only man to survive the killing, told reporters outside the court that he was "very happy with the sentences. They will never see the blue sky again."