Harare High Court judge, Justice Esther Muremba, sentenced
Edward Chizhombe to 13 years in prison but suspended three years on condition
of good behaviour.
The judge said Chizhombe was unappreciative.
“The accused was an ungrateful boyfriend. His moral
blameworthiness is very high,” said Justice Muremba.
The State proved that Chizhombe had assaulted his wife on
two consecutive days prior to her death.
The State tendered a post-mortem report, which showed that
Catherine had suffered head and abdominal trauma and haemorrhage.
It also showed that Chizhombe had developed a culture of
assaulting his wife, Catherine Masiye (45), and prior to her death on April 23,
he had severely beaten her with thorn switches.
However, Chizhombe vehemently denied ever assaulting the
late Catherine,
He told the court that her death was due to an illness and
the post-mortem revealed that there were no physical injuries discovered on her
body.
Chizhombe said the accusations emanated from his in-laws,
who wanted to fix him since he had not paid lobola.
But, during cross examination, he indicated that there was
no bad blood between him and them.
He also lied to the court that his wife had cancer.
Catherine’s mother, Rosemary (82), said she had accepted
Chizhombe as her-son-in-law, although he had not paid lobola.
She also told the court that Chizhombe was in the habit of
assaulting her daughter, but couldn’t get herself to ask him why, saying she
didn’t want to ruin her daughter’s marriage by meddling. H Metro
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