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Fidelis Munyoro Chief Court Reporter
The Chivhu woman Emelda Marizani, who killed her four daughters by slitting their throats and setting the family house on fire has been found guilty of all four counts murder.
She will be sentenced next Friday.
In a judgment delivered today, Justice Munamato Mutevedzi threw out the woman’s defence of insanity, finding that she failed to prove on a balance of probabilities that she was mentally disordered at the time she killed her children.
“She made unsubstantiated assertions regarding her family’s alleged history of mental illness,” he said.
Her statement to the police and the oral testimony she gave in court materially contradicted, while the medical evidence, which she submitted was found to be totally unreliable.
After setting the house on fire, Marizani went on to burn two of the four children beyond recognition.
She then attempted suicide by gulping a poisonous substance, before she was rushed to hospital.
When the trial opened last year Marizani pleaded not guilty to four counts of murder.
She offered a plea of diminished responsibility.
Online Reporter