Child killer faces gallows

THE Lusaka High Court has convicted and sentenced a 27-year-old man of Lusaka’s John Howard Compound to death by hanging for murdering his two-year, seven months old son.

George Phiri on June 26, 2017 gave his son a pesticide and secretly buried him within the School premises where he worked as a caretaker. This was discovered when Mr. PHIRI could not disclose the whereabouts of his son when the maternal side of his son asked for him. The 27 year old who got the child from its mother gave different versions as to where he had taken his son. After several interventions, Mr. Phiri confessed to have killed his son. He later led the police to his house within the school premises where a bottle of the poisonous substance was found under his bed. The child’s body was exhumed and a postmortem was conducted to establish the cause of death. In a judgment, High Court judge Sharon Newa said Mr. Phiri had malice aforethought when he killed and buried his son within the school premises. In his defense Mr. PHIRI claimed that on the material day his wife Eunice Chola had gone for a drinking spree and when she returned home she told him that the child was not his son. Mr. Phiri told the court that it wasn’t the first time his wife said such after coming back drunk and that her parents had allegedly confirmed that the child was not his. The 27 year old said he was disturbed with such statements because he raised the child as his own. However Justice Newa said the accused was in control of his faculties and that he planned to kill the child and if he wanted to kill himself he would not have taken the substance in moderation and giving much to a younger child. She ruled that the state had proven the case beyond reasonable doubt and found him guilty of murder hence sentencing him to death by hanging. Source: ZNBC