News / National
Man to hang for ritual murder
22 May 2015 at 09:35hrs | Views
A Karoi man who killed his nine-year-old son while the younger brother watched before he sold the boy's ear and blood in 2010 will be hanged after the Supreme Court on Wednesday threw out his appeal against both conviction and sentence.
Justice Anne-Mary Gowora, sitting with Justices Vernanda Ziyambi and Susan Mavangira, did not find fault with a decision of the High Court of 2011, which condemned Bigknows Wairosi to death.
Wairosi, of Murambiwa Village under Chief Dandawa in Karoi, was found guilty of murder with actual intent after killing one of his two sons in May 2010.
Dismissing the automatic appeal on Wednesday, Justice Gowora said the conviction and sentence were proper under the circumstances.
"In my view, the majority decision that the appellant was guilty of murder with actual intent cannot be assailed. The conviction was proper.
"The child was killed in a most gruesome manner.
"He made his younger son witness the murder and, in the view of this court, his callousness was extreme.
"He is undeserving of mercy and, accordingly, the appeal against both conviction and sentence is dismissed," ruled Justice Gowora.
Wairosi committed the offence in 2007 when he was 27 years old and was paid Z$40 million.
The facts are that on June 12, 2007 Wairosi went to Dandawa area where his sons lived with their grandmother, Mrs Eneresi Siamukonde.
Wairosi said he was taking the two boys to Karoi to get them birth certificates.
However, he took them to three men who were clad in black clothes and they boarded the strangers' truck.
They passed through Karoi and parked in a bushy area where Wairosi disembarked with the elder son and left the younger one in the truck with the three men.
He struck his son on the head twice with an iron bar, killing him on the spot.
He then used a pair of scissors to cut off the right ear and collected blood in a lunch box, which he handed over to the men.
He then dumped the body at Sandara Farm after crushing the boy's head with a stone.
The other son witnessed all that took place before he fled.
Wairosi then made a missing person's report in Karoi, but the murder came to light when the younger son resurfaced at the same police station and narrated what he had seen.
A Magunje businessman has been implicated in the ritual murder.
Justice Anne-Mary Gowora, sitting with Justices Vernanda Ziyambi and Susan Mavangira, did not find fault with a decision of the High Court of 2011, which condemned Bigknows Wairosi to death.
Wairosi, of Murambiwa Village under Chief Dandawa in Karoi, was found guilty of murder with actual intent after killing one of his two sons in May 2010.
Dismissing the automatic appeal on Wednesday, Justice Gowora said the conviction and sentence were proper under the circumstances.
"In my view, the majority decision that the appellant was guilty of murder with actual intent cannot be assailed. The conviction was proper.
"The child was killed in a most gruesome manner.
"He made his younger son witness the murder and, in the view of this court, his callousness was extreme.
"He is undeserving of mercy and, accordingly, the appeal against both conviction and sentence is dismissed," ruled Justice Gowora.
Wairosi committed the offence in 2007 when he was 27 years old and was paid Z$40 million.
Wairosi said he was taking the two boys to Karoi to get them birth certificates.
However, he took them to three men who were clad in black clothes and they boarded the strangers' truck.
They passed through Karoi and parked in a bushy area where Wairosi disembarked with the elder son and left the younger one in the truck with the three men.
He struck his son on the head twice with an iron bar, killing him on the spot.
He then used a pair of scissors to cut off the right ear and collected blood in a lunch box, which he handed over to the men.
He then dumped the body at Sandara Farm after crushing the boy's head with a stone.
The other son witnessed all that took place before he fled.
Wairosi then made a missing person's report in Karoi, but the murder came to light when the younger son resurfaced at the same police station and narrated what he had seen.
A Magunje businessman has been implicated in the ritual murder.
Source - the herald
