Judge raps 'shoddy' police as murder suspect cleared

A Chegutu man accused of murdering a fellow reveller in a drunken brawl has been acquitted, with the court condemning the police for shoddy work. A High Court judge slammed police for clumsy investigations.

Admire Chidhakwa was cleared of murdering George Komboni at P & J Mining Syndicate Mine, Chegutu, nine years ago after Justice Tawanda Herbert Chitapi ruled that the prosecution failed to make a case against the suspect. Komboni was found dead near Nyambuya Plot, Sable Bush Park, with a deep wound on the scalp in the temporal region.

The trial started in June this year and the evidence adduced in court failed to add up to secure conviction.

"In recent times this court has not come across such shoddy investigations as obtained in this case," said Justice Chitapi.

The investigating officer, Detective Seargent Ngoni Shayanewako, blamed the economic meltdown of 2007 for poor investigations during his testimony.

He said the period was punctuated by scarcity of resources on the part of the police to carry out proper investigations. Justice Chitapi accepted his assertion that 2007 was one of the worst years in economic terms when the country faced hyperinflation and shortage of resources, but took a swipe at the police for clumsy work.

"If the scarcity of resources was the major cause for shoddy investigations, then the individual investigative shortcomings on the part of the investigating team served to put paid to any semblance of professionalism… if one could say any meaningful or purposeful investigation was made at all," said Justice Chitapi.

In his testimony, Detective Sgt Shayanewako was not clear as to the circumstances under which Chidhakwa made the confirmed warned and cautioned statement.

He testified that the statement was recorded at court, and checked by the interpreter. He later changed his version saying it was recorded at Chegutu CID offices and taken to court for translation. In his ruling, Justice Chitapi said it was clear the witness was confused or lying.

He said in the court's view, it was irrelevant whether the witness lied or was confused. What became material, the judge said, was whether the court could in the circumstances hold that the statement produced was in fact the one made by the accused.

"Grave doubts lingered in the mind of the court. The doubts became more entrenched upon a consideration of the witnesses' own doubts as to the genuineness of the accused's alleged confession.

"The police did not believe in the truth of the statement, the probabilities and genuineness of the facts. It becomes an act of misconduct and dereliction of duty to seek to place trash before a court and expect it to exercise its function of dispensing justice," he said.

Justice Chitapi said the matter should not have come before the court. "It was not half-baked. The ingredients were just not there to bring it to the baking oven," he said. The judge condemned the investigating officer for taking to court a docket whose evidence he did not have confidence in.

"The investigator doubted his investigations, yet he expected the court to not only believe the doubtful evidence but to be satisfied with it beyond a reasonable doubt. This is mischievous." The judge commended law officer Ms Rufaro Mazvimbakupa for professionally and correctly conceding that she could not advance the prosecution's case further.

The judge found Chidhakwa not guilty and accordingly discharged him. According to the indictment, Chidhakwa was accused of killing Komboni on January 20 2007 at P & J Mining Syndicate Mine, by striking him on the head several times with an iron bar.

Komboni was discovered two days later by two women who informed a security guard at the mine. The case was reported to police.