Correspondent|A Marange woman will spend the next 4 years behind bars after she killed her 13-year-old son by sjambokinghhim and smashing his head against the wall after he was sent back home from school for not having a pen.

Lydia Kahwema of was initially jailed for eight years when she appeared before High Court judge Justice Hlekani Mwayera charged with culpable homicide.

Justice Mwayera set aside four years of her jail term on condition that she does not commit a similar offence within the next five years.

Kahwema was initially charged with murder after she assaulted her son, Tafadzwa, to death, before the State preferred culpable homicide charges.

In sentencing Kahwema, Justice Mwayera said the court had to weigh in and show that the sanctity of human life cannot be eroded by violent and irrational individuals.