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Court frees from jail man falsely implicated by his son

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A MUTOKO man, Andrew Totama, who spend almost four years in Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison after being implicated by his 15-year-old son in a suspected ritual murder, yesterday walked out of the High Court a free man after Justice Garainesu Mawadze acquitted him of the offence and instead convicted the teenager of murder.

A MUTOKO man, Andrew Totama, who spend almost four years in Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison after being implicated by his 15-year-old son in a suspected ritual murder, yesterday walked out of the High Court a free man after Justice Garainesu Mawadze acquitted him of the offence and instead convicted the teenager of murder.

BY CHARLES LAITON

Totama was arrested in October 2011 following the arrest of his son who lured and killed a nine-year-old girl, Progress Nyakabau, after failing to sexually abuse her.

Upon his arrest, the teenager implicated his father of having instructed him to commit the heinous crime in order to extract the girl’s brains and blood for the purposes of enhancing the family’s grinding-mill business.

But Justice Mawadze dismissed the teenagers’ assertions saying it was inconceivable to accept his explanation.

“We say so because it was impossible that the second accused (Totama) would send accused one (his son) at his tender age to perform a ritual murder and then extract the brains and blood without the assistance of a mature person,” Justice Mawadze said.

The court said the teenager was very economical with the truth and might have been influenced by his desire to have sexual intercourse with the minor, but failed to do so and ended up killing his victim for fear of being reported to her guardian.

Justice Mawadze castigated the teenager for not being a credible witness after changing his initial statement to the police and the court in which he accused his father of having a hand in the girl’s murder, but later changed to say his father was innocent.

In his defence, the teenager had told the court that he extracted the girl’s brains and blood, but the court said according to the port-mortem reports, the victim’s brains were still intact, raising concerns as to the boy’s motive to tell a lie of that nature.

The court also noted that the boy had admitted to having initially raped the girl before her death, but the medical examination conducted by the doctors showed that the late girl was never sexually abused.

Prosecutor Douglas Chesa is expected to address the court in aggravation today.