The ManicaPost
Abel Zhakata Senior Reporter
A CONVICTED rapist who pounced on breastfeeding mothers is facing three murder charges after he allegedly stoned his victims before butchering their babies in cold blood.
Patrick Madhume was arrested in September 2012 after he confessed to raping and killing four people before a prophet who subsequently tipped the police.
His arrest helped the police to solve a series of mystery and unresolved murder cases that had dogged the Mayo community in Headlands.
All of the victims’ bodies were found in a decomposing state, rendering postmortem futile, while some of the body parts were mauled by dogs and wild animals.
Madhume, who is currently serving a 31-year-old sentence after he was recently convicted by a Rusape court of rape and unlawful entry charges, was this week hauled before High Court judge Justice Charles Hungwe at the Mutare Magistrates’ Courts facing three counts of murder and another of attempted murder.
Mr Walter Makhuyana of Bere Brothers is representing the accused, while Ms Jane-Rose Matsikidze is prosecuting.
Allegations are that in March 2012, the accused raped and killed a woman in Mayo.
“During that time, Tambudzai Moya was found dead, while her one-year-old child sustained serious head injuries. Efforts to carry out post-mortem were fruitless as her body had already decomposed.
“The child survived the attack. The murder remained a mystery and went unsolved. Sometime in September 2012, another woman, Violet Chipanyama, and her child were reported missing. She was coming from a family-cleansing ceremony. They disappeared on September 9 and were only found on September 26. Their bodies had already decomposed and dogs were feasting on their corpses. Again, a post-mortem to ascertain their death was fruitless and the case remained a mystery as well,” said Ms Matsikidze.
Around that time, the accused went to Jairosi Tsikai’s homestead in Macheke looking for a place to put up for the night.
“He arrived at Tsikai’s young wife’s house who advised him to go and seek audience with Tsikai who was not feeling well and being attended to by his first wife at another homestead. The accused proceeded and met Tsikai. However, some church members, including a prophet, were also at Tsikai’s house as they wished him a speedy recovery from the tooth ache. The prophet then told the accused that he was being followed by a dark spirit and he should confess his sins. He only confessed to raping women, but the prophet insisted that it was not enough.
“At this point Tsikai intervened and promised to employ the accused if he revealed all his sins.
“He subsequently confessed to killing his victims and their children. Tsikai then telephoned members of the Neighbourhood Watch Committee who arrested the suspect and handed him over to the police.”
In his statement to the police he confirmed to killing his victims soon after raping them. He would blindfold them before hitting their heads with a stone boulder.
In his statement he said after killing Tambudzai Moya he turned on to her child because the baby was crying. He felt pity for the baby and thus he deemed it better to kill it also since its mother was dead.
He struck the baby with the stone but it was lucky to survive the attack.
As he attacked the victims, he said, they pleaded for mercy, begging him to rape them only and leave them alive.
Although Madhume is alleged to have confessed to the killings in his warned and cautioned statements, he sang a different tune in court, saying he was tortured by the police to admit to the charges. This resulted in a trial within a trial as the defence counsel argued that the warned and cautioned statements were not admissible because his client was tortured to admit to the charges.
Other than the statements he gave to the police, the State does not have any other evidence to incriminate him.
Ms Matsikidze told the court that the accused was misleading the court by trying to disown confessions he voluntarily made to civilians at Tsikai’s homestead as well as collaborative statements he made to the police.
She said during indications that he showed and narrated how he committed the crimes.
Justice Hungwe ruled in favour of the State saying the statements were admissible.
Madhume was thus put to his defence and Mr Makhuyana intends to call a nurse who allegedly treated the accused from wounds he said he suffered at the hands of the police who tortured him to admit to the charges.
The case continues.
