Killer Zimbabwean father used PC cable

MANCHESTER, UK – Zimbabwean man strangled his children with computer cable in a symbolic bid to punish his estranged wife for looking for new lovers on the internet, a court heard. 

Petros Williams denies killing his four-year-old daughter Yolanda, and his son Theo, 2, at their home at Lansbury House, Whalley Range, last year. Manchester Crown Court heard that the children were found ‘stone cold’ by their mother, Morongoe Molemohi, on the morning of October 14, when she went round to get Yolanda ready for school. 

Internet cable had been wrapped twice around their necks before being knotted. Mr Williams was lying in a pool of vomit near a noose fashioned from the flex of an electric iron. He did not help resuscitate the children. Prosecuting, Andrew Thomas, said that a ‘screaming’ Miss Molemohi told a 999 operator ‘my husband has killed my children’. 

Later a ‘farewell’ video recorded by Zimbabwe-raised Mr Williams with the children was found at the property. The court heard that a week before the children were murdered Miss Molemohi had walked out on her husband and moved into a hotel in Harpurhey. She left the children with her husband while she looked for a new family home, returning to the Whalley Range flat to help out in the meantime. 

She did not conceal the fact that she was accessing dating sites on the family computer. After just one night apart one of a number of texts Mr Williams is alleged to have sent her read, ‘I couldn’t stand other men all over you’. Mr Williams had contacted men she had been talking to online – one of them just 24 hours before the children were killed -  and told them to ‘stay away’ from his wife, the jury was told. 

Andrew Thomas said Miss Molemohi’s search for a new relationship was the ‘final confirmation’ that the ‘marriage was over’. 

Punishment  

He said: “The use of the internet cables to kill the children appears to be some sort of symbolic act of punishment.” The jury were shown a video of the children saying ‘bye mummy’ recorded the weekend before their deaths. 

In it, Mr Williams sits on the sofa with the children as they watch the X-Factor on TV. Mr Williams is alleged to have labelled the video ‘daddy, Yolly, Theo, 11 October 09, byee, the end’. 

A note was also found which read ‘play the video we made for your memories, thank you Petros’. Another read, ‘sorry mummy decided to leave us for new boyfriend’, and another said ‘use the internet as much as you like.’ 

Mr Thomas said of the crime, “It was a selfish act of punishment by a man who couldn’t accept that his marriage was over. The fact the internet cables were used, the sarcastic note he left, all ties in with the fact that he was upset Miss Molemohi was using dating websites to a start a new relationship.” 

Beginning her testimony, Lesotho-born Miss Molemohi, who married the defendant in 2002 shortly before they settled in England, said her husband had a ‘temper’ which he blamed on his steroid use. 

She also said she had felt ‘neglected’ in the on-of marriage, which featured infidelity on both sides, and that one occasion he had tried to strangle her. Manchester Evening Post

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