Life imprisonment for child killer

A FORT RIXON man, who buried his wife's one-day-old love child alive in 2013, will spend the rest of his life behind bars after he was yesterday slapped with life imprisonment by Bulawayo High Court judge Justice Martin Makonese.

Andrew Mhodi (40) buried alive Deliwe Tsikai (35)'s baby boy by another man in a shallow grave while she watched helplessly on April 7.

Mhodi had denied the murder charge, but Justice Makonese convicted him after a full trial in which Tsikai and their eight-year-old daughter had testified in court. Justice Makonese was satisfied that their evidence was credible.

The judge said there was no room to prove that the child might have been coached by her mother to lie against her father and during cross examination by both the State and defence, she remained stable and consistent in her evidence.

Justice Makonese said despite the fact that Mhodi claimed that the child was still-born, the State had proved that he was born alive.

"The court has proved that the child was born alive and it was the intention of the accused to see the child dead. This court, therefore, finds you guilty of murder with intent," ruled Justice Makonese.

Both the State and defence had submitted that there were no extenuating circumstances, but Justice Makonese put it to them that Mhodi had been angered by the fact that he had found his wife, whom he had five children with, pregnant by another man.

"The court finds the fact that you found your wife having been impregnated by another man caused you to commit murder due to anger. This reduced your moral blameworthiness. There is no man who can be happy when he discovers that his wife has another man's pregnancy," he said.

However, Justice Makonese said this did not mean the murder he committed was being scrapped off even though he had acted without deeply thinking about ending the life of an innocent child.

"You have been convicted of murder with actual intent. This is a very serious act of murder. An innocent life has been lost; you ended the life of an infant in a painful way. You went away from the shallow grave without remorse or concern. It does not matter that the life lost was of a one-day-old baby; life is important no matter whose is being taken. Had it not been of extenuating circumstances, you could have been sentenced to death? You are, therefore, sentenced to life imprisonment," Justice Makonese said.

Mhodi's daughter had told the court that her mother had at one time given her the child to hold after she gave birth and she had seen her mother breastfeeding the infant.

Justice Makonese said their daughter's evidence corroborated her mother's evidence that sometime in 2010, Mhodi left her with their five children in Chinhoyi to search for employment in Fort Rixon.

She said Mhodi never returned or communicated or sent money for their upkeep.

He returned to Chinhoyi on March 13 2013 and found her pregnant by another man. Mhodi begged her to move with him to Fort Rixon insisting that he would take care of her and the baby.

They left for Fort Rixon on March 26 of the same year and Tsikai gave birth to the baby boy on April 7 at around 3am.

At around 9am, Mhodi told Tsikai that he hated the newly born baby and took a pick and shovel before ordering her to follow him to a stream in a nearby bush. He dug a pit, took the baby from her arms and placed him in the pit and buried him.

Tsikai told the court that she cried, but no one heard her as the area was far from homesteads.

Tsikai later took her children and fled back to Chinhoyi when Mhodi was away and reported the case at Murereka Police Station. The matter was referred to the Fort Rixon police, leading to Mhodi's arrest.