At 20:35 on Wednesday, 28 April sees the premiere of 'The Ellen Pakkies Story', an emotive true story on Crime & Investigation Network. In September 2007, Ellen Pakkies murdered her young son, Abie. Abie was addicted to crystal meth – Tik as it is know in the Western Cape, South Africa. His addiction made him turn against his family, and most importantly, his mother Ellen.

He sold all her possessions for money to fuel his habit and violently threatened her repeatedly, sparking Ellen’s decision to make him sleep outside. In the end, she had been forced to live and sleep in a room so protected with bars it was like a cage.

Unable to reason with him and trapped in a downward spiral, on the morning of 12 September 2007, Ellen Pakkies strangled Abie before going to work. Ellen confessed to the horrific crime. She was charged and later found not guilty of murder at trial.

The court found that it was Abie's addiction to this drug that drove Ellen to murder. Her trial exposed the dark underbelly of a community crippled by drug and alcohol abuse and focused attention on the difficulty of those living in poverty without recourse to drug rehabilitation centres and other measures effective in the treatment of drug addicts. Find out the story behind the headlines on Crime & Investigation Network.