A 22-year-old woman has been jailed for an effective 20 months for killing her newborn baby to conceal her infidelity from her husband, who is due to be released from prison soon.
Enita Zhou of Village 4 Khayalami area under Chief Maranda is reported to have had sexual relations with another villager while her husband was behind bars until she fell pregnant.
She was convicted on her own plea of guilty to a charge of infanticide when she appeared before Mwenezi Resident magistrate Mr Honesty Musiiwa on Friday.
She was initially sentenced to 30 months in prison before Mr Musiiwa suspended 10 months on condition of good behaviour.
During her trial, Zhou told the court that she killed the baby to save her marriage, since the child had been sired by another man.
“The child belonged to my boyfriend,” she said.
“I fell pregnant while my husband was in jail.
‘‘So, l committed the offence for fear of his possible reaction to my actions during his absence.”
Charges are that on March 21, Zhou gave birth to a baby boy at Mwenezi Rural Clinic and later requested to be discharged.
The court heard that after her release from the clinic, she went to Sosonye River where she dug a hole on the riverbed and buried the baby.
She told her sister that she had suffered a stillbirth and that the baby was taken by nurses for disposal.
The sister was not convinced and went on to search the accused’s bag for medical documents.
She then found a card from the clinic which indicated that a live baby had been born and reported the matter to the police.
Zhou was subsequently arrested. The Herald
