Wife poisons hubby a week after marriage, jailed 7 years

A High Court judge has jailed a 20-year-old Mutoko woman for seven years, after convicting her for poisoning and killing her husband.

The couple had just married for a week, but the woman Esther Mapisa claimed in court that the man was sexually molesting her.

High court judge Joseph Musakwa convicted Mapisa on murder with actual intent.

She had however, denied intentionally killing George Nyambe.

Mapisa said that her intention was to inflict pain on Nyambe for having sexual intercourse with her against her will.

"I did not want him to die. I wanted him to feel the pain because I did not want him to continue sexually abusing me," Mapisa told the court during trial.

The court heard that the two got married in April 2011 but Mapisa claimed in court that the union was against her will.

Some few days later, Mapisa visited her family's home, where she brought some termite killer.

Prosecutors told the court that Mapisa administered the toxic substance into Nyambe's food.

"Deceased vomited uncontrollably and was referred to Kotwa District Hospital, where he died on admission on the same day," reads part of the State papers.

A post mortem report showed that Nyambe died as a result of consuming poison.

One of the children from Nyambe's family is lucky to be alive after he attempted to eat the food that Nyambe had left in his plate.

Mapisa hit the plate and the food fell onto the ground.

"I did not want the child to eat the food since my main target was George," Mapisa told the court.