Nurse strangler sentenced to life in jail

Nurse strangler sentenced to life in jail

STRANGLER: Daniel Tambengwa

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By Staff Reporter

A CAMEROONIAN man who strangled his Zimbabwean girlfriend in Colchester, England, in July last year and left her decomposing body in the same flat with an 11-year-old girl for a week has been jailed for life.

Evil Daniel Tambengwa, 30, described by police as “arrogant”, was told he will spend a minimum 15 years in jail by a judge at the Chelmsford Crown Court on Tuesday.

Judge Christopher Ball QC also told Tambengwa he will be deported once he has served his sentence. During the trial, the court heard that Tambengwa was an illegal immigrant who entered Britain on a false Belgian passport.

A jury of eight men and four women found Tambengwa, who fled to Cameroon after committing his crime, guilty of the murder of Colchester General Hospital nurse Ella Chimweta, 33, at the end of a five-week trial.

Throughout the process, the trainee medical scientist denied strangling Chimweta after a row at their flat in the Highwoods area of Colchester last July.

Tambengwa, who shook his head and sighed as the verdict was read out, was cleared of two lesser charges related to his conduct with the young girl after he was alleged to have sexually abused her hours after the killing.

He was found not guilty of inciting a child to engage in a sex act and causing a child to watch a sex act.

The young girl spent a week with the body before she raised the alarm. By that time, Tambengwa was back in his homeland of Cameroon after fleeing the country hours after the killing.

Police discovered Chimweta’s decomposed body on July 16 last year after the young girl – who cannot be identified for legal reasons -- left the flat in Weetmans Drive and told a passer-by Chimweta was dead.

Judge Ball said he had considered all the aggravating and mitigating factors and deemed 15 years a suitable tariff and told Tambengwa - who is HIV positive - he would be deported to Cameroon upon his release.

He said he gave the defendant “some regard” for the fact he had returned to the UK to face trial.

Detective superintendent John Quinton, of Essex Police, said the killer had never expressed sorrow for what had happened to Chimweta.

He said: “He left a child alone in the house with Ella's body, with little care for her welfare. We are pleased that he has been found guilty and will have to face the consequences of his actions.

“However, if he had pleaded guilty earlier he would not have put that young girl through the ordeal of giving evidence and having to relive the dreadful events of July 2007.

“Our condolences to Ella's family and relatives and we hope that this verdict brings some closure for them.”
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