Binga Mother Acquitted After Killing Disabled Daughter, Court Accepts She Acted Under Imminent Danger

A 23-year-old woman from Binga District, Matabeleland North Province, has been acquitted of murder by the High Court despite killing her six‑year‑old daughter, who lived with a disability.

Sitting on circuit in Hwange, Bulawayo High Court judge Justice Evangelista Kabasa found that Melody Mwiinde could not be held criminally liable.

The judge accepted her defence of self‑compulsion, ruling that she acted under serious and imminent threat to her life. Ruled Justice Kabasa:

“The State had failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the accused acted with free will or criminal intent, a key requirement for a murder conviction. The accused is acquitted.”

Mwiinde had faced a murder charge after her six‑year‑old daughter, Precious, died on 23 April 2025.

Prosecutor Martha Cheda told the court that Precious was strangled with a copper cable sheath at Sango Conservancy, near the family fields in Chief Siabuwa, Binga.

After the incident, Mwiinde first told her grandfather, Edson Sibanda, that goblins had killed the child in the bush.

She later admitted to relatives, including her aunt Simukai Sibanda and grandmother Juliet December, and led them to the body, which had been hidden in a makeshift field hut.

Police recovered the alleged murder weapon after following up on the information Mwiinde gave. A post‑mortem confirmed the cause of death and was used as evidence for the prosecution.

Mwiinde, defended by Mhaka Attorneys, pleaded not guilty and argued she acted under compulsion. In her testimony, she said her father had raped her and fathered the child, whom he repeatedly rejected.

She told the court he had threatened to kill both her and the child if she didn’t go along with his demand that the child be killed. On the day in question, she said, he warned he would poison them if she refused.

Her lawyers argued she reasonably believed the threats would be carried out and that she acted fearing for her life. The High Court accepted that defence, finding she had acted under imminent danger.

More: Chronicle