adminAuxilia Katongomara Court Reporter
THE inquest into the death of a former British soldier, Robert Alexander Wood, 54, entered day two in Bulawayo yesterday with one of the witnesses submitting conflicting testimony.Two witnesses Willard Gwimba, a police officer and Blessed Sibanda, a gardener at the deceased’s residence, were cross-examined.
Gwimba who is stationed at Hillside Police Station and is among police officers who attended the scene, told the court that there was some blood on the deceased’s manhood which other witnesses failed to notice.
He said he was on duty at the station when the case was reported and went to the deceased’s home on the morning of March 9 last year. He found the gardener and the deceased’s mistress Gugulethu Henrietta Dube at the scene.
The policeman, who has been in the force for the past five years, told the court that Wood was hanging from the top end of the burglar bar with a clipped buckle that was pinned from the back of his head and tied to the burglar bar.
He said after discovering the blood, they decided to call experts from the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) homicide section to assist with investigations. Gwimba said the experts told them that it was normal to spot blood on private parts in suicide cases.
When asked by brother to the deceased, Ian Wood, what time they attended the scene, Gwimba said they got to the home at between 7 and 8AM. He then said he was no longer sure of the time since the death happened a long time ago.
He said one of Wood’s legs which was slightly resting on the stretcher bed below him was straight and the other one which was hanging was bending slightly on the knee.
This was contrary to accounts given by three other witnesses who had testified before alleging that the leg which was slightly resting on the bed was slightly bending from the knee and the hanging one was straight.
Also cross-examined was Sibanda, the gardener, who was employed by the couple’s landlord.
He said on the eve of Wood’s death, the couple did not spend time at home and he only heard them coming back after 12 midnight but did not wake up to check on them.
He said on the fateful day he woke up to do his duties as usual and to prepare for church and heard the deceased mistress screaming. She then knocked on his door to notify him of the death of her lover.
He said they went into the house and he saw the deceased hanging from the window, tied with a leather belt and immediately began making phone calls.
Sibanda told the court that the first person he called was the taxi driver Mandlenkosi Nkala, one of the last persons to see Wood alive and he told him to go and make a report at Hillside Police Station as he could not leave deceased’s mistress alone.
The deceased’s brother quizzed him on a previous conversation in which he gave a conflicting statement on the deceased legs arrangement when he saw him hanging, but Sibanda denied that.
Wood claimed that Sibanda had told him that the deceased’s mistress often threw parties, a claim he refuted.
The gardener told the court that the deceased’s mistress moved out of the house, a month after Wood’s death, but does not know where she went.
Robert Alexander Wood, who owned a gold mine just out of Bulawayo, was reported to have committed suicide after he was found hanging in the spare bedroom of a house that he rented with his mistress Gugulethu Henrietta Dube.
The inquest is being presided over by provincial magistrate Elias Magate. It enters day three today with the cross examination of Dube and other witnesses.
Online Reporter