Woman gets 24 months for infanticide

Sukulwenkosi Dube-Matutu, Plumtree Correspondent
A 21-YEAR-OLD Bulilima woman has been sentenced to 24 months imprisonment for killing her newborn baby after her boyfriend denied responsibility.

Similo Nkomo of Ngotsha Village killed her newborn baby girl and threw the body in a Blair toilet.

Nkomo was convicted on her own plea of guilty to infanticide by Plumtree magistrate, Mr Taurai Manwere. She was sentenced to 24 months imprisonment and six months were suspended on condition that she does not within the next five years commit a similar offence.

In mitigation, Nkomo who has a three-year-old child said she resorted to killing her newborn baby as her lover who works in South Africa had denied responsibility. She said she did not have the means to fend for the baby.

“I’m not working and I have a three-year-old child that I’m looking after. The father of my first child abandoned us and this time around I thought it was going to be a different case.

“However, my boyfriend denied responsibility of his child and he refuses to come back from South Africa where he works.

“I was terrified because I couldn’t afford to raise another child alone and that is why I killed the baby. I’m struggling to look after my three-year-old and I couldn’t bear to bring another child to this world only to suffer,” she said.

Prosecuting, Mr Zorodzai Pengapenga said Nkomo killed the baby on July 15. He said the offence was discovered by her aunt.

“On 15 July around 4AM Nkomo gave birth to a baby girl and she killed her. She threw the body in a toilet pit and didn’t tell anyone about the birth of the child.

“A few weeks later Nkomo’s aunt noticed that her niece was no longer pregnant and became suspicious. She questioned Nkomo who later admitted to have strangled the baby and dumped it in a toilet pit. The matter was reported to the police who attended the scene and recovered the decomposed body in the pit leading to Nkomo’s arrest,” he said.

Magistrate Manwere told Nkomo that poverty was not an excuse to commit crime.

“You committed a serious offence, but I have taken your personal circumstances into consideration and have given you a lenient sentence. You knew that if you engaged in sexual activities you would fall pregnant and give birth.

“Take responsibility of your life and focus on fending for the child that you have and not bearing more children because no one will take care of them on your behalf. Poverty isn’t an excuse to commit crime,” he said. — @DubeMatutu