A Zvishavane woman has been jailed for seven years after she poisoned her seven-month-old baby.<\/p>\n
Taking into account her youthfulness, her difficult circumstances, and apparent lack of a prior criminal record, the High Court sitting at Gweru sentenced her to 7 years in prison.<\/p>\n
In the early hours of March 2, 2023, Felistas Mpofu, who was 19 at the time, arrived in Mandava, Zvishavane.<\/p>\n
Later that morning, she laced milk with rat poison (an organophosphate pesticide) and fed it to her 7-month-old daughter using a feeding bottle.<\/p>\n
Having no place to sleep, she approached a Good Samaritan in Mandava, seeking overnight accommodation.<\/p>\n
She was provided with a place to sleep.<\/p>\n
Throughout the night, the baby cried persistently, and in the morning, the Good Samaritan suggested taking the baby to the hospital.<\/p>\n
The baby later died at Zvishavane General Hospital, and the matter was initially reported as a \u2018sudden death\u2019 pending investigation.<\/p>\n
When the offender went back to collect her belongings from the Good Samaritan’s home, the Good Samaritan became suspicious.<\/p>\n
She noticed a foul smell emanating from the offender’s belongings.<\/p>\n
She then discovered the feeding bottle containing milk with a strong chemical odor, which she handed over to the police.<\/p>\n
A post-mortem conducted at United Bulawayo Hospitals subsequently confirmed that the child died from the ingestion of a toxic substance.<\/p>\n
The offender informed the court that she killed her child as she had no means to look after her properly.<\/p>\n
She committed the offence when she was 19 and was tried this week at 21.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A Zvishavane woman has been jailed for seven years after she poisoned her seven-month-old baby.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3200,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-3199","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-crime-and-courts-zimbabwe"},"yoast_head":"\n