Zimbabwean jailed for 14 years in UK over knife killing

Zimbabwean jailed for 14 years in UK over knife killing

• Zim internet fraudster cons man for £10 000

• 'Dead' Zim nurse escapes UK jail

• Zimbabwe woman wins US abjuse suit

• UK jail for mum who allowed hubby to kill baby

• Pair face UK jail for child cruelty

• British MP wants fraudster deported

• Trooper who throttled vice lover jailed for life

• Trooper paid pal to have sex with lover, then throttled her

• Zimbabwean crashes car into UK house

• UK murder hunt as Zim dies from head injuries

• Zimbabwean named in UK rape hunt

• Family seeks answers over dead Zim man

• 3 Zimbabweans die in high speed UK crash

• Ex-Zimbabwe diplomat jailed in UK

• Zinatha man faces UK jail

• Ex-Zimbabwe diplomat faces UK jail

By Staff Reporter

A ZIMBABWEAN asylum seeker who stabbed his former girlfriend to death after she had ended their relationship was starting a 14-year-jail term last night.

Taonezvi Mashozhera, 25, of no fixed address, stabbed 22-year-old Esnath Mundicha with two knives at her flat in Bedford, England, in November 2004.

Jurors rejected his claim that he had killed her due to provocation and was guilty only of her manslaughter.

He is to serve a minimum of 14 years of a life sentence.

Judge Findlay Baker said the ferocity of the attack and the fact he had gone to get a second knife when the first one broke, had led him to one conclusion.

"What you had in mind was to kill the poor woman, rather than inflict serious injury," he said.

Judge Baker said it was clear he could not bear to see Miss Mundicha with a new boyfriend.

At the time he stabbed Miss Mundicha, Mashozhera was on police bail after being arrested for burglary and assaulting her new boyfriend Fortune Hove.

A condition was that he should not have gone anywhere near her.

The day he killed Miss Mundicha, also from Zimbabwe, he forced his way into her flat, armed with a knife, and launched a frenzied attack stabbing her in the neck, head, body hands, left arm and her thigh.

When the knife broke he got a second from the kitchen and carried on.

A neighbour saw the silhouette through the curtains of a man raising his hand and bringing it down as if he was "hammering nails".

Miss Mundicha had eight major stab wounds and many more minor wounds.

Giving evidence Mashozhera said he had gone to the flat to collect some property but claimed she had refused to let him in and taunted him.

He said he could remember grabbing the first knife from a kitchen in the building, but could not remember attacking Miss Mundicha.

"I tried to control myself and I couldn't. I tried," he told the jury.

He said he accepted he had caused her injuries, but had no recollection of inflicting them. "To me it's like a dream."

Mashozhera told the court that during 2004 he failed in his bid for asylum to remain in this country and he had appealed the decision.

He said as a result no deportation order had ever been served on him and he was not an illegal immigrant.

While on remand in prison he said he had been told that a decision would be taken on whether he could remain in the UK after the trial.

Before passing sentence Judge Findlay Baker QC was told a deportation notice had been served on Mashozhera.

He was also found guilty of the common assault on Fortune Hove, but cleared of a charge of burglary at Miss Mundicha's flat. - BBC
JOIN THE DEBATE ON THIS ARTICLE ON THE NEWZIMBABWE.COM FORUMS
newsdesk@newzimbabwe.com