A Cape Town magistrate and former prosecutor has been found murdered in her home.

Romay van Rooyen, 50, was found dead by a relative in her house in Red Roman Street, Marina da Gama, on Saturday afternoon.

The cause of death was unclear, but Western Cape police confirmed a murder investigation was under way.

Her vehicle was also missing from the scene, confirmed police spokesperson, Sergeant Wesley Twigg.

Van Rooyen is a former prosecutor, who served as a magistrate at courts across the city, including Mitchells Plain and Somerset West.

National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) spokesperson Eric Ntabazalila has expressed the State’s “shock and deep sense of sadness” after the murder of their former colleague and “dear friend”.

“Her tragic death is a loss to the judiciary and the justice system as a whole,” he said.

Van Rooyen started her career with the NPA in 1997, prosecuting in the district and regional courts before becoming a State advocate in the Western Cape High Court.

She was employed as an acting magistrate in 2016, where she was the presiding officer in matters heard in the maintenance, domestic violence and criminal courts.

Van Rooyen had, in an interview for a magistrate vacancy, told the panel she had chosen to become an attorney to assist the public.

“Yes, I do love the law, but I also love helping people,” an enthusiastic Van Rooyen had said.

“I consider my sexual offences [prosecutions] – when I was prosecuting in Wynberg, where the [cases] I dealt with were all minor children under the age of 16 – my greatest contribution. There, it takes sympathy, empathy and [going] the extra mile to get a conviction in those matters.”

In the High Court, she secured three life sentences in 2014 for former motor mechanic Johannes Christiaan de Jager for the murder of two teenagers.

Source: News24