WOMAN ADMITS USING SISTER’S BOYFRIEND’S PHOTO TO REVENGE HUSBAND
A 30-year-old woman from Obama has told the Chelstone Local Court that she used a photograph of her elder sister’s boyfriend to convince her husband that she was having an affair — all in an alleged revenge stunt after discovering that he had made advances towards her best friend.
Mary Phiri made the admission during divorce proceedings against her 33-year-old husband, Littlefold Mwape, turning their marital dispute into a tangled tale of alleged infidelity, pregnancy, violence and a borrowed photograph.
Phiri told Magistrate Elizabeth Zulu that she married Mwape in 2017 and that they have three children.
She said problems in the marriage intensified when she became pregnant with their third child.
According to Phiri, Mwape asked her to terminate the pregnancy and gave her K800 for the procedure.
She refused to terminate the pregnancy, after which she claimed her husband’s attitude towards her changed.
“When I fell pregnant, I informed my husband, but he told me that I should terminate it,” Phiri told the court.
She alleged that Mwape subsequently began spending nights away from home and entered into a relationship with another woman, whom she said he later impregnated.
Phiri further claimed that Mwape sometimes left her and the children without food for weeks and stopped paying their school fees, resulting in the children dropping out of school.
She also told the court that she had taken her husband to the subordinate court over an alleged assault.
According to Phiri, Mwape later told her that he no longer wanted her and questioned why her relatives had not come to collect her so that he could marry the woman he had allegedly impregnated in 10 Miles.
The case took an unusual turn when Mwape accused Phiri of having a boyfriend.
Phiri denied cheating on her husband but admitted that she deliberately sent him a photograph of another man and claimed that he was her lover.
The man in the photograph, however, was not her boyfriend.
He was her elder sister’s boyfriend.
Phiri told the court that she used his photograph after discovering that Mwape had allegedly made romantic advances towards her best friend.
She said her intention was simply to make her husband experience the emotional pain she believed he had caused her.
“I wanted my husband to be hurt so that he could feel the pain I go through,” she said.
Phiri said neither her sister nor the man in the photograph knew that their picture had been used in the marital dispute.
Mwape denied some of the allegations against him but admitted that he was in a relationship with the woman he had allegedly impregnated.
On the K800, Mwape told the court that he and Phiri had initially agreed to terminate the pregnancy because of problems in their marriage.
He said the pregnancy was about three weeks old at the time, but Phiri later changed her mind and decided to keep the baby.
Mwape said he eventually accepted the child as his own.
He also accused Phiri of violent behaviour, alleging that she had threatened him with a knife, attempted to pour hot porridge on him, bitten him and insulted his parents.
He denied chasing her from the matrimonial home, saying she left voluntarily following an argument.
Mwape claimed Phiri subsequently began removing household property and her clothes from the home, prompting him to report the matter to both families.
He told the court that he wanted the marriage dissolved because the couple could no longer live peacefully together.
“Whenever I reach home, we are always having misunderstandings,” he said, adding that Phiri had also told him she no longer had feelings for him.
During cross-examination, Phiri returned to the alleged affair, asking Mwape whether he had denied being involved with another woman after she discovered messages on his phone.
Mwape admitted that he was in a relationship with the woman he had allegedly impregnated.
Phiri further told the court that the woman had personally contacted her and informed her that she was carrying Mwape’s child.
With allegations ranging from infidelity and a disputed pregnancy to assault, unpaid school fees and a photograph of an unsuspecting man being used as a fake boyfriend, the court reserved the matter for judgment at a later date.