By Mashudu Netsianda
The High Court has quashed the sentence of a Gweru man who was jailed for six months for assaulting his pregnant wife with a cooking stick and biting her following a domestic dispute.
The judge warned lower courts against deriving joy by playing to the gallery and imposing sentences which are irrational and calculated to cause more injury to complainants, particularly in cases involving married couples.
Reachwell Patrick Chikwature (34) was in February last year convicted of physical abuse by a Gweru magistrate who sentenced him to an effective six months imprisonment.
Dissatisfied with the sentence, Chikwature through his lawyers Gundu and Dube Legal Practitioners, lodged an appeal at the Bulawayo High Court citing the State as the respondent.
Chikwature challenged the sentence, arguing that it was too harsh and a reflection of misdirection by the magistrate who presided over the matter.
Bulawayo High Court judge Justice Francis Bere set aside the sentence and substituted it with a $50 fine or alternatively one month in jail.
“Consequently, the appeal succeeds. The sentence of the court a quo is set aside and in its place the appellant is ordered to pay a fine of $50, or in default of payment one month in jail. In addition to that, the appellant is sentenced to four months imprisonment wholly suspended for five years on condition he does not within that period commit a similar offence,” ruled the judge. Justice Bere said there was misdirection on the part of the magistrate.
“We do not believe that the court a quo exercised its discretion properly in sentencing the appellant,” he said.
“Prison, yes, but it must be exclusively for those cases where no other punishment would be appropriate. Imprisonment must not be taken lightly because of its devastating effects especially where the accused is husband to the complainant,” said Justice Bere.
The judge said the magistrate should have taken into account the fact that Chikwature was a first offender who showed remorse.
The court heard that on February 2 last year, Chikwature had a domestic dispute with his wife who was two months pregnant.
He got angry and struck her with a cooking stick on the forehead once and twice on the arm.
He then plucked strands of hair off her head and kicked her before biting her on the right hand.
The complainant reported the matter to the police leading to her husband’s arrest.
The State, which was being represented by Mr Whisper Mabaudhi, did not oppose the appeal.The Chronicle
