News / National
New-born baby thief convicted
08 Mar 2018 at 14:12hrs | Views
Chipinge Magistrates Court have convicted 21 year old Joyce Maputire for stealing a baby boy from Chipinge District Hospital last Friday.
Maputire who resides in Chimanimani visited the hospital to commit the offence after allegedly having had a number of miscarriages.
Maputire, who claims she hatched the plan to steal the baby in order to save her marriage, visited Memory Mhlanga at Chipinge District Hospital who had given birth on the 28th of February and pretended to be a Good Samaritan by donating gifts to the newly born baby.
After establishing a close rapport with the mother of the baby and her sister-in-law Memory Muyambo, Maputire returned to the hospital on the 2nd of March and stole the baby taking advantage of the mother who needed to attend to other issues after having given birth through a caesarean operation.
"I kept custody of the baby at the out-patients waiting to see the doctor while Memory Muyambo who is sister-in-law to the mother of the child went back to the maternity ward to collect the baby card, hospital notes and cash giving me a chance to disappear with the new born baby.
"I had no bad intentions but to keep the baby as mine since I had had a number of miscarriages," said the accused.
Chipinge District Criminal Investigations Officer Chipinge Superintendent Obey Muzadzi says police then made a man hunt and tracked Maputire to Chimanimani after a tip-off resulting in the arrest of the accused on the 4th of March.
"Our detectives managed to arrest the accused after receiving a report on the kidnapping case," revealed Superintendent Muzadzi.
Maputire, who was facing charges for kidnapping as defined in Section 193(1)(b) of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act Chapter 9:23, appeared before Chipinge Magistrate Poterai Gwezhira and is due to be sentenced this Thursday after being convicted.
Maputire who resides in Chimanimani visited the hospital to commit the offence after allegedly having had a number of miscarriages.
Maputire, who claims she hatched the plan to steal the baby in order to save her marriage, visited Memory Mhlanga at Chipinge District Hospital who had given birth on the 28th of February and pretended to be a Good Samaritan by donating gifts to the newly born baby.
After establishing a close rapport with the mother of the baby and her sister-in-law Memory Muyambo, Maputire returned to the hospital on the 2nd of March and stole the baby taking advantage of the mother who needed to attend to other issues after having given birth through a caesarean operation.
"I kept custody of the baby at the out-patients waiting to see the doctor while Memory Muyambo who is sister-in-law to the mother of the child went back to the maternity ward to collect the baby card, hospital notes and cash giving me a chance to disappear with the new born baby.
"I had no bad intentions but to keep the baby as mine since I had had a number of miscarriages," said the accused.
Chipinge District Criminal Investigations Officer Chipinge Superintendent Obey Muzadzi says police then made a man hunt and tracked Maputire to Chimanimani after a tip-off resulting in the arrest of the accused on the 4th of March.
"Our detectives managed to arrest the accused after receiving a report on the kidnapping case," revealed Superintendent Muzadzi.
Maputire, who was facing charges for kidnapping as defined in Section 193(1)(b) of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act Chapter 9:23, appeared before Chipinge Magistrate Poterai Gwezhira and is due to be sentenced this Thursday after being convicted.
Source - zbc
