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Juliet Mpofu (52) pleaded not guilty to murder and pleaded insanity before senior Bulawayo High Court judge, Justice Nicholas Ndou sitting with Mrs Isabel Mashengele and Mr Patrick Hikwa as assessors.
She will be taken to Mlondolozi Prison, which looks after prisoners who are mentally challenged.
The court ordered that she should continue to receive treatment for her condition.
The court heard that on 14 October 2009, Mpofu’s nephew, who was doing Grade Zero at Njelele Primary School, arrived home at 1.30pm.
He found Mpofu alone at home and proceeded into the sleeping hut.
Mpofu followed him, dragged him out of the hut to the front of the kitchen hut where she picked up an iron rod.
She dragged him to the back of the kitchen where she struck him five times on the head and he died on the spot.
According to the post mortem report, the nephew died of a depressed skull fracture and a brain laceration as a result of an assault. In her defence outline, presented by her pro deo lawyer, Mr Mlamuli Ncube, of Cheda and Partners, Mpofu stated that when she committed the offence she was mentally unstable and that in the premises of her defence she was praying that a special verdict be retained.-Chronicle
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