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Woman who intentionally poisoned her 2 kids set free by court

by Staff reporter
14 Jul 2013 at 08:03hrs | Views
A Murambinda woman who poisoned her two children to death last year has been freed by the courts!

Responding to the reason why she killed her two children, the teenage mother said she did so because she was 'tired of living'.

High Court Judge, Justice Hungwe, acquitted and ordered Pamela Marindire (19) of Marindire Village to undergo mental treatment after the defence lawyer, Mrs Memory Mandingwa successfully led evidence that her client was a mental patient. Pamela was facing charges of killing her two children.

A psychiatrist, Mr Jiyangwa, who was a defence witness, told the court that Pamela was suffering from a mental illness which makes her think that she is normal yet she is a psychiatric patient. He told the court that this condition was brought about due to a litany of reasons which include the fact that she was orphaned and was getting married at a young age.

Mr Jiyangwa also said from the assessment he carried out on Pamela, he found that she had a problem of keeping things to herself - a condition that usually leads to deadly and suicidal tendencies. He said it was best for the court to order Pamela to be rehabilitated at a mental health institution and have her coming from home rather than confining her to the institution as this will cause her to adopt the behaviour of other inmates.

Allegations are that on June 24 last year at around 12pm, a misunderstanding arose between the accused and her aunt, Ratidzo Marindire over the alleged ill-treatment her stepson, Tichasangana Masindire(7).

This did not go down well with Pamela, who then took a bottle of a pesticide from her bedroom and went to a nearby Machiva River with her children and poisoned them.

After noting that they were dead, she then took the same substance herself. She returned home the following day in an unstable and staggering condition and revealed to her husband that she had killed her children and had also consumed the same poisonous substance. She then collapsed and lost consciousness.

Her husband, with the aid of villagers went to the river and recovered the minors' corpses, while Pamela was rushed to the Murambinda Mission Hospital where she was treated.

Source - Metro