The Sunday Mail
A 16-year-old Karoi girl is said to have tried to conceal the birth of her new-born baby by killing and slipping it into the bag of a passenger she was travelling with on a Karoi-bound bus a fortnight ago.
Last week, the court heard that the girl gave birth in Kadoma on May 29, killed it then wrapped the baby’s body in a polythene bag.
She then boarded a bus and slipped the body into another passenger’s bag. She then disembarked 25km outside Karoi. The owner of the bag, Tsitsi Chakanyuka, only discovered the body when she arrived in Karoi and immediately informed the police. Police investigations led to the teenager’s arrest in Chikangwe communal lands. Medical experts at Karoi Hospital proved that she had recently given birth.
She pleaded guilty to infanticide. Karoi magistrate Mrs Nyaradzo Ringisayi remanded her in custody to tomorrow as the court awaits the probation officer’s report.
In a related case, another teenager from Chiedza Township, Karoi, was last week sentenced to five months in prison after pleading guilty to concealing birth. Mrs Ringisayi conditionally suspended two months of the sentence. The teenage vendor was selling plastic buckets at a flea market in Karoi when she sneaked into a public toilet and dumped the body wrapped in a plastic bag. After the discovery of the body in the toilet, fellow vendors linked the girl to the offence resulting in her arrest. Mr Webster Dimingo prosecuted in both cases.
