Hero cop saves new-born baby dumped in handbag

By Nokusa Masuku

BULAWAYO – An unwanted new-born-baby has been rescued alive after its teenage mother placed the tot in a plastic bag, shoved it in a handbag and buried it under a pile of clothes.

Investigators believe the baby girl was in that position for THREE HOURS before she was rescued by a police officer, called to investigate by a concerned neighbour.

Yesterday, 19-year-old Mercy Nyoni, of Gwabalanda suburb in Bulawayo, pleaded guilty to a charge of exposing an infant to danger before provincial magistrate, Willard Maphios Moyo.

She will be sentenced today.

Nyoni, according to prosecutors, was alone at a house which she shares with her sister and her sister’s husband when she gave birth last Thursday.

She had successfully concealed her pregnancy from them fearing she would be kicked out if it was discovered, she told the court.

Unbeknown to Nyoni, her secret was not safe from alert neighbour, Nosizi Nkiwane, who observed Nyoni walking around without the usual bulge in her tummy.

Nkiwane, the court heard, had previously asked Nyoni if she was pregnant, which the latter had denied only to be contradicted by her boyfriend, who was present at the time.

So, when Nkiwane observed Nyoni walking around without her usual bulge at around 8PM last Thursday, she was so concerned she alerted a police officer, stating that she feared the teenager had had an abortion.

The police officer, accompanied by Nkiwane, confronted Nyoni who tried to explain away some blood stains claiming she was going through her monthly menstrual cycle.

Nyoni also volunteered false information that she had suffered a miscarriage.

The police officer, said prosecutor Mufaro Mageza, at that time assumed he was now looking for a corpse.

Added the prosecutor: “As the police officer went through the rooms in the house, the baby started crying.

“Nyoni then showed Nkiwane a pile of clothes under which she had hidden the handbag in which she had put the baby.”

Nyoni, the court heard, had stuffed the baby in a plastic bag which she placed inside a handbag before burying it under a pile of clothes.

She was arrested and taken to hospital under police guard with her baby. As she arrived in court yesterday, Nyoni was cradling the healthy-looking tot.

She told the magistrate she had been driven to despair by the thought of her sister finding out she was pregnant. She insisted her plan was just to hide the baby.

“I was scared of my sister and her husband whom I stay with, that’s why I hid the baby,” she said in mitigation.

Doctors believe the baby would not have survived the night in those conditions.

Last week, a maid was jailed for 22 years for causing the death of a 10-month-old baby who was wrapped in a heavy blanket and locked in a drawer for making “too much noise”.

Violet Moyo, 22, of Bulawayo’s Cowdray Park suburb was incensed by the baby’s cries and put the baby in a linen drawer at the head of a bed.

The baby died due to lack of oxygen. The Chronicle