A mentally-unstable Gwanda man who fatally axed his father last August escaped the hangman’s noose on Wednesday after Bulawayo High Court judge Justice Misheck Cheda committed him to a psychiatric institution in terms of the Mental Health Act.
The court heard Godfrey Moyo axed his father, Samson Moyo, killing him on the spot at their family home in Silikwe village on August 5 last year.
State counsel Lewis Maunze told the court on the fateful day, Moyo, who suffered frequent bouts of mental instability, turned violent, forcing other family members to flee their homestead.
However, his father remained behind while Moyo spent the whole night shouting and walking aimlessly around the homestead.
The following morning, Moyo armed himself with a small axe and confronted his father who was seated outside his bedroom hut and struck him once, killing him instantly.
Moyo’s uncle Filisa Moyo and a neighbour came to the homestead to check on him, but found him having stripped his father’s body naked.
On seeing his uncle, Moyo fled, but the pair gave chase and effected a citizen’s arrest on him.
The family handed him to police, who charged him with murder.
