Panga attack came close to taking off victim’s head

THE panga attack that claimed the life of 21-year-old Kalina Kambahepa at Kamanjab two years ago was so ferocious that she was nearly beheaded, according to testimony heard in the High Court in Windhoek yesterday.

The doctor who performed an autopsy on Kambahepa’s body found a multitude of deep cut wounds not only to her arms, but also to the back of her head, State Pathologist Dr Elizabeth Shangula told Judge Sylvester Mainga when she testified in the trial of Kambahepa’s boyfriend, Stanley Danster. Shangula presented the court with the post-mortem findings of the doctor who performed an autopsy on Kambahepa’s remains.That doctor has since left Namibia.He listed multiple laceration wounds as one of his chief post-mortem findings.These included four deep cuts to the back of Kambahepa’s head, extending to the middle of her neck.The doctor also recorded a “partial severance of the base of the head from the neck” – that is, that she had been partly beheaded.Kambahepa suffered severe brain injuries, the post-mortem report indicates.Her cerebellum – the part of the brain at the back of the skull – was completely detached from the cerebrum – the principal part of the brain, located in the front area of the skull – and from the brain stem, he also recorded.On her one hand, Kambahepa had another deep cut wound that extended almost up to the wrist joint and that almost completely cut off one of her fingers.In her opinion, Shangula told the court, that wound could be a typical defensive wound.Shangula also told the court that in her opinion “excessive force” must have been used to inflict the sort of injuries that were found on the back of Kambahepa’s head and on her hand.Danster (25) claimed to the court yesterday that he could have been responsible for only one of the injuries found on Kambahepa’s body after she died at Kamanjab on the evening of March 28 2004.The other more than 10 cut wounds, he said, must have been inflicted by someone else after he had left her in her room – where they had been involved in a fight – when he went to the Kamanjab Police Station to try to summon medical assistance.All three eyewitnesses who told the court last week that they had seen him attack Kambahepa with a panga, and that they had furthermore seen him direct panga blows to the back of her head while she was lying on her stomach in the yard outside her room, had lied to the court, Danster insisted.A neighbour of Kambahepa, Theopoldine Ganes, was one of the three those eyewitnesses.She testified last week that she saw Danster standing over Kambahepa where she was lying on the ground; he was holding a panga with both his hands when he swung it overhead to hit Kambahepa with it, several times, on the back of her head.Ganes told the court that while Danster was hitting Kambahepa, she heard him say: “You’ve broken my heart.”Other witnesses who had told the court that they had heard him threatening earlier on March 28 2004 that he was going to kill Kambahepa and then commit suicide, supposedly because she had broken his heart, had also lied to the court, Danster also claimed yesterday.He told Judge Mainga that he was with Kambahepa in her room when, under cover of darkness, she allegedly suddenly launched an attack on him with an unknown object, after she had told him that she was going to kill him and then kill herself because she was tired of her family interfering in her and Danster’s relationship.After he had managed to take that object away from her, he retaliated, using the object to direct one blow at her at about head-level, he claimed.According to Danster, she then told him that he had cut her and that she was bleeding, and he then left to summon medical assistance, he said.Only once he was outside her room did he see in the light from a street lamp that he had a panga in his hands.He threw this onto the roof of Kambahepa’s room and left for the Kamanjab Police Station, Danster said.Although Kambahepa had attacked him with the same panga, he suffered only bruises and pain, but no cut wounds, in that attack, Danster would have the court believe.She perhaps hit him with the blunt edge of the panga, he ventured when asked to explain that vast difference in the injuries he and Kambahepa sustained during their fight.The trial continues today.Shangula presented the court with the post-mortem findings of the doctor who performed an autopsy on Kambahepa’s remains.That doctor has since left Namibia.He listed multiple laceration wounds as one of his chief post-mortem findings.These included four deep cuts to the back of Kambahepa’s head, extending to the middle of her neck.The doctor also recorded a “partial severance of the base of the head from the neck” – that is, that she had been partly beheaded.Kambahepa suffered severe brain injuries, the post-mortem report indicates.Her cerebellum – the part of the brain at the back of the skull – was completely detached from the cerebrum – the principal part of the brain, located in the front area of the skull – and from the brain stem, he also recorded.On her one hand, Kambahepa had another deep cut wound that extended almost up to the wrist joint and that almost completely cut off one of her fingers.In her opinion, Shangula told the court, that wound could be a typical defensive wound.Shangula also told the court that in her opinion “excessive force” must have been used to inflict the sort of injuries that were found on the back of Kambahepa’s head and on her hand.Danster (25) claimed to the court yesterday that he could have been responsible for only one of the injuries found on Kambahepa’s body after she died at Kamanjab on the evening of March 28 2004.The other more than 10 cut wounds, he said, must have been inflicted by someone else after he had left her in her room – where they had been involved in a fight – when he went to the Kamanjab Police Station to try to summon medical assistance.All three eyewitnesses who told the court last week that they had seen him attack Kambahepa with a panga, and that they had furthermore seen him direct panga blows to the back of her head while she was lying on her stomach in the yard outside her room, had lied to the court, Danster insisted.A neighbour of Kambahepa, Theopoldine Ganes, was one of the three those eyewitnesses.She testified last week that she saw Danster standing over Kambahepa where she was lying on the ground; he was holding a panga with both his hands when he swung it overhead to hit Kambahepa with it, several times, on the back of her head.Ganes told the court that while Danster was hitting Kambahepa, she heard him say: “You’ve broken my heart.”Other witnesses who had told the court that they had heard him threatening earlier on March 28 2004 that he was going to kill Kambahepa and then commit suicide, supposedly because she had broken his heart, had also lied to the court, Danster also claimed yesterday.He told Judge Mainga that he was with Kambahepa in her room when, under cover of darkness, she allegedly suddenly launched an attack on him with an unknown object, after she had told him that she was going to kill him and then kill herself because she was tired of her family interfering in her and Danster’s relationship.After he had managed to take that object away from her, he retaliated, using the object to direct one blow at her at about head-level, he claimed.According to Danster, she then told him that he had cut her and that she was bleeding, and he then left to summon medical assistance, he said.Only once he was outside her room did he see in the light from a street lamp that he had a panga in his hands.He threw this onto the roof of Kambahepa’s room and left for the Kamanjab Police Station, Danster said.Although Kambahepa had attacked him with the same panga, he suffered only bruises and pain, but no cut wounds, in that attack, Danster would have the court believe.She perhaps hit him with the blunt edge of the panga, he ventured when asked to explain that vast difference in the injuries he and Kambahepa sustained during their fight.The trial continues today.