A 26 year old woman from Gweru who slit her baby’s throat has finally been sentenced after almost two years. Sandra Mpembe (26) of plot 11 Divide farm, appeared before Gweru magistrate Musaiona Shotgame facing charges of infanticide, and she pleaded guilty.
In her defense Mpembe told the court that certain forces drove her into committing the horrific act.
“Your worship I regret what I did. I could not control myself. I believe that I was under a spell. A certain voice kept telling me that I should kill my daughter because her blood was needed. I only got back to my normal senses after committing the act,” she said. For her actions, Mpembe was slapped with two years in prison which were wholly suspended on condition that she does not commit a similar crime in five years.
In passing the sentence, Shotgame said that the accused had already spent one year and seven months in jail while doctors looked into her mental state. “This court puts into consideration that you already spent one year seven months locked up in a mental health institution. This honorable court also considers that you committed the offence while you were under distress of labour,” said Shotgame.
Representing the state, prosecutor Andrew Marimo told the court that on April 27 last year at around 6 am the accused gave birth to a baby girl while she was alone at her homestead. She then used an unknown object to cut the neck of the baby who then died. The accused person left the body of the child on the ground in her yard. The matter was discovered by two unknown female adults passing through the accused person’s homestead and found the accused person naked with blood on her body. The women advised ta neighbour, who reported the matter to the police leading to the arrest of the accused person.
Source-B Metro