A mother who murdered her newborn baby by poisoning him about three years ago has received an effective prison term of 17 years at the end of her trial in the Oshakati High Court.
A newborn baby has the same right to life and protection under the Constitution any other person on Namibian soil would have, judge Duard Kesslau said during the sentencing of Hilda Tshekupe Iita last Friday.
Kesslau said the prevalence of the offence of murder and in particular the killing of vulnerable babies in Namibia is indicative of a morally bankrupt society in which parents fail to shoulder their responsibilities.
Kesslau recounted that Iita’s newborn son was only a day old, and had not yet been given a name, when she killed him by poisoning him with methylated spirit at Oshakati on 13 March 2020.
Having killed the infant, Iita put his body in a travel bag before she travelled to a village in the Outapi district, where she burned the body in a mahangu field of her mother and left the burnt body parts.
Iita was 26 years old when she committed the murder.
She pleaded guilty to charges of murder, read with the Combating of Domestic Violence Act, and attempting to defeat or obstruct the course of justice in July last year.
During a presentence hearing, Iita told the court she killed her baby because the infant’s father denied paternity and she felt she was not able to feed her child.
Iita said she was not producing breast milk and did not have money to buy alternative food for the baby, and because her parents were unemployed she also felt they were not in a position to help her, Kesslau recounted during Iita’s sentencing.
She also said she felt helpless and angry when the baby was crying after her return home from the hospital where she had given birth on 12 March 2020.
Kesslau said the baby “was only a few hours in this world before his life was taken away from him by his mother, a person who normally would protect her children at all cost”.
He added that Iita killed the infant without making any attempt to get support from her family. She acted in a calculated manner and had time to rethink her actions before the baby’s death, the judge said as well.
Iita was held in custody for a year following her arrest, before she was released on bail.
She spent another year in custody after admitting guilt in July last year.
Iita is currently the mother of three children, including a nine-month-old baby born while she was being held in custody.
Kesslau sentenced her to 22 years’ imprisonment on the murder charge, with five years of that prison term suspended for a period of five years on condition that she is not convicted of murder or culpable homicide committed during the period of suspension.
On the count of attempting to defeat or obstruct the course of justice, Iita was sentenced to a one-year jail term, ordered to be served concurrently with the sentence on the murder charge.
State advocate Martha Hasheela represented the prosecution in Iita’s trial.
Iita was represented by legal aid lawyer Petrus Grusshaber.
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