BY CHARLES LAITON
A 25-YEAR-OLD Chegutu man, Ideology Admire Hove, killed his two-year-old son following a heated argument with his wife.
The altercation emanated after Hove accused his wife Gertrude of bedding other men, resulting in the birth of the toddler.
Hove escaped the hangman’s noose when he appeared before High Court judge Justice Moses Foroma on Thursday last week, who convicted him of a lesser offence of culpable homicide and slapped him with a 10-year jail term.
As if that is not enough, Hove’s jail term will run concurrently with another 10-year jail term handed to him by a Chegutu magistrate for attempting to kill his wife.
The incident leading to the gruesome killing of the toddler occurred on July 1, 2018 at Stonegate Farm in Chegutu just after Hove had had a misunderstanding with Gertrude over infidelity allegations.
Hove’s narration and claims of what transpired on the fateful day was accepted by the Prosecutor-General’s Office, which then preferred a lesser charge of culpable homicide instead of murder.
“His wife indicated that the child was not his and he assaulted her. The wife fled and the accused (Hove) proceeded to his in-laws’ residence. On arrival, he took his son who was playing with other children and left with him without saying anything to anyone,” part of the statement of agreed facts read.
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“He took the child to a nearby bush where the accused removed his shoes and took the shoelaces and used one of them to hang his son to a tree. He took another shoelace and tried to hang himself by it snapped. At that point, his son had already died and he left the place and went back to his in-laws’ homestead where he tried to kill his wife.”
The court heard Hove was then “filled with panic and regret” and he again attempted to end his life by taking rat poison, but he vomited it and later proceeded to his uncle’s residence in Zhombe where he was subsequently arrested.
