‘Mother Kills New Born Baby’
16 November 2015
Spread the love

A 16-year-old mother who was in a forced marriage has been arrested for suffocating her newborn baby.
The teenager, from Phihli Village under Chief Bunina in Lower Gweru who cannot be named for legal reasons, appeared before Gweru Magistrate Judith Taruvinga facing a charge of infanticide.
She pleaded not guilty to the charge and was remanded in custody to November 25 for trial.
For the State, Daniel Tafuma told the court that the teenager was married sometime this year after she fell pregnant and killed her baby after giving birth eleven days ago.
He said she was living with her mother-in-law when she committed the crime.
The prosecutor said a neighbour who heard the baby crying from the girl’s room came and forced open the door, only to find the dead baby in a plastic bag.
“On November 5 this year at around 9AM, she didn’t tell anyone about her labour pains and gave birth while alone in a room at her mother-in-law’s residence,” said Tafuma.
He said the accused took the baby and put it in a plastic carrier bag and suffocated it.
The neighbour reported the matter to the police leading to the teenager’s arrest.
The post mortem results showed that the baby died due to suffocation.
The teenager however insists that the baby was already dead when she delivered hence she decided to put the body in a plastic bag to take it to a nearby clinic.
She told the court that it was best for the child to die because her husband was denying responsibility.
She said her husband always told her that his mother had forced him to marry her.
The teenager said the baby could have died during delivery as she was alone when she gave birth.
She said she was alone at home when she went into labour so there was noone to take her to hospital.
“Your worship I didn’t kill the baby as alleged but I couldn’t get anyone to take me to the hospital so I suspect the baby died during delivery. I didn’t have clothes for the baby so after delivery I had to wrap it in a plastic bag. When I was preparing to go to hospital that’s when my neighbour walked in and found the baby in a plastic bag and suspected that I had killed it,” said the teenager close to tears.-State Media