A Ngundu nurse who probably wanted to escape responsibilities strangled and killed his girlfriend’s baby during delivery and threw the body in a pit latrine.
High Court Judge, Justice Garainesu Mawadze who expressed shock at the callous murder passed sentence on Friday and sent Ngonidzashe Mugabe to jail for 18 years.
Ngonidzashe pleaded not guilty but Justice Mawadze found overwhelming evidence against him.
The State outline is that Mugabe and Diana Rose Mudzingwa (32) were in an intimate relationship and Mudzingwa fell pregnant. Mugabe lured Mudzingwa to come and give birth at Ngundu Clinic where he works.
When Mudzingwa who stayed in Waterfalls, Harare fell into labour, Mugabe instead of taking Mudzingwa to the clinic, took her to a place where he rented. Mudzingwa found just the two of them in the room and Mugabe started playing midwifery.
Mudzingwa who was frail from labour pain was shocked to see Mugabe strangle the baby and stuff its nose and mouth with cotton. He then drowned it headfirst in a bucket, wrapped the body in a plastic bag and walked out.
Mugabe later threw the body in a pit latrine. He then collected an injection from the clinic and injected Mudzingwa to stop her from bleeding. The incident happened on January 24, 2023.
As if nothing had happened, Mugabe immediately afterwards went to the clinic for duty.
The frail Mudzingwa reported the matter at Ngundu Police Station leading to Mugabe’s arrest. He showed Police where he had dumped the body.
Justice Mawadze said there was no postmortem because the body was in state of decomposition when it reached Masvingo Provincial Hospital and he relied on Mudzingwa’s testimony and circumstantial evidence to reach his conclusion.
He described Mudzingwa as a credible witness while Mugabe’s “testimony, and actions contradicted his age, and profession, and cannot possibly be true”.
Mugabe said he was only having a sexual relationship with no prospects of marriage with Mudzingwa since he has a wife and five children. He also said that she had informed him that she was in a sexual relationship with another man when she fell pregnant.
He claimed that he was confused and afraid of losing his job and family should it come to light that his girlfriend had given birth in his room.
“Judging by the role of a nurse and a midwife you know the importance of a postmortem. If you had alerted the Police a postmortem would have been conducted and cause of death known.
“You didn’t want a postmortem and that is consistent with foul play. There is no confusion. You had clarity of mind to go and illegally take an injection from the clinic.
“What completely destroys your story is that you are denying that there was foul play but you are agreeing that Mudzingwa accused you of killing her child.
“What did you do? You were supposed to report to the Police who would investigate. Instead you nicodemously wrapped the body in a plastic bag and walked two kilometres and dumped the baby,” said Justice Mawadze.