News / National
Police officers steal dockets, stash them in community toilets
24 Jun 2012 at 05:47hrs | Views
TWO Mberengwa police officers stole and plucked off pages from the crime register, docket movement book and two docket-receiving books and stashed them in three community toilets that were later dug up by detectives carrying out investigations.
The two committed the offence in a desperate bid to conceal evidence in a case of sexual offences in which one of them was the accused.
The two - Barrington Tendai Mawire (23) and Timothy Mutsengi (28) who were both stationed at Mataga Police Station in Mberengwa appeared before Zvishavane magistrate Mr Peter Madhibha facing charges of theft as defined in section 113 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act, Chapter 9:23.
They were remanded out of custody on $50 bail.
Prosecutor Mr William Mangombe told the court that sometime in February the two got into ZRP Mataga Records Office, Mberengwa, where they stole the Crime Register and pulled off pages ranging from the month of March 2011 to January 2012. They then proceeded to steal the docket movement book - Mataga CR 75/01/2012 docket - in which Barrington Tendai Mawire was the accused person in a case of sexual offences and two report received books (book 3/11, serial numbers 1039901 to 1039950 and book 18/11, serial numbers 1239901 to 1239950).
It was the State case that the accused persons took the records to a blair toilet at Mberengwa Rural Community Hall where they stashed the crime register pages in the air ventilation chimney of the toilet.
Mr Mangombe told the court that the other two records which included the two report received books, the docket movement book and crime register pages ranging from December 2011 to January 2012 were dropped into the toilet through the main hole.
The court heard that Monica Muchera discovered the offence when she wanted to use the records. She then informed her superiors at parade but later on made a report at the station after failing to get the records back in her office.
The following day a team of detectives went to ZRP Mataga and interviewed all the members who were on duty from the day the records went missing. Information was, however, received to the effect that Barrington had made a statement that some of the books would disappear before the Dispol Minor's visit in March.
During the interview, Mutsengi highlighted to the detectives on the whereabouts of the missing records. Acting on the information received, the detectives teamed up with other ZRP Mataga staff members and went to the blair toilets at Mberengwa Rural Council Community Hall. The court was further told that the detectives and other staff members of ZRP Mataga dug the three blair toilets and recovered all the missing documents.
The two committed the offence in a desperate bid to conceal evidence in a case of sexual offences in which one of them was the accused.
The two - Barrington Tendai Mawire (23) and Timothy Mutsengi (28) who were both stationed at Mataga Police Station in Mberengwa appeared before Zvishavane magistrate Mr Peter Madhibha facing charges of theft as defined in section 113 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act, Chapter 9:23.
They were remanded out of custody on $50 bail.
Prosecutor Mr William Mangombe told the court that sometime in February the two got into ZRP Mataga Records Office, Mberengwa, where they stole the Crime Register and pulled off pages ranging from the month of March 2011 to January 2012. They then proceeded to steal the docket movement book - Mataga CR 75/01/2012 docket - in which Barrington Tendai Mawire was the accused person in a case of sexual offences and two report received books (book 3/11, serial numbers 1039901 to 1039950 and book 18/11, serial numbers 1239901 to 1239950).
Mr Mangombe told the court that the other two records which included the two report received books, the docket movement book and crime register pages ranging from December 2011 to January 2012 were dropped into the toilet through the main hole.
The court heard that Monica Muchera discovered the offence when she wanted to use the records. She then informed her superiors at parade but later on made a report at the station after failing to get the records back in her office.
The following day a team of detectives went to ZRP Mataga and interviewed all the members who were on duty from the day the records went missing. Information was, however, received to the effect that Barrington had made a statement that some of the books would disappear before the Dispol Minor's visit in March.
During the interview, Mutsengi highlighted to the detectives on the whereabouts of the missing records. Acting on the information received, the detectives teamed up with other ZRP Mataga staff members and went to the blair toilets at Mberengwa Rural Council Community Hall. The court was further told that the detectives and other staff members of ZRP Mataga dug the three blair toilets and recovered all the missing documents.
Source - SN
