By Staff Reporter

A MUREWA man has been sentenced to life imprisonment after he strangled his daughter to death to avoid paying US$30 maintenance fees.

Charles Kavhumbura Kavhumbura had pleaded innocent but was convicted on the back of overwhelming evidence adduced during trial.

The court heard after killing child, Kavhumbura threw the body in a pond in a bid to conceal the crime.

However, the body was discovered the following day by a student who was fetching water.

According to court papers, the incident occurred on October 14, 2017.

The now deceased and her brother visited their father at his grinding mill at Susman Farm, Juru, Murewa.

The children had been sent by their mother, Pedzisai Kachepa to get money for their upkeep.

Kachepa and Kavhumbura had divorced, with the latter having moved on and married another wife.

Kavhumbura then decided to kill his daughter in a bid to reduce alimony fees.

He strangled her and later dumped the body about 750 meters away from the grinding mill.

Justice Chitapi ruled that evidence against Kavhumbura was overwhelming.

The judge said it was disheartening to think that Kavhumbura knew right from wrong.

“In fact, his motive to kill the deceased was to save himself from the obligation to outlay more money as maintenance. He decimated part of his family by selfishly murdering the deceased for no just cause,” the judge said.

“The circumstances of the murder must have left Kavhumbura’s family traumatised and the community he lived in dumbfounded. To devour one’s own child in order to avert a lawful obligation to pay maintenance as ordered by the courts cannot be countenanced in an informed society governed through the rule of law.”

Chitapi said Kavhumbura must be returned to custody and the sentence of death shall be executed according to law.