By PERPETUAL SICHIKWENKWE –
A TWENTY-SEVEN-YEAR-OLD caretaker of John Howard Township has appeared for mention in a Lusaka magistrates’ court for murdering his two-year-old son.
George Phiri is alleged to have killed his two-year-seven-month-old son, who was buried within the premises of a school in the area.
Phiri is alleged to have given his son, Edward, doom (a poisonous substance) and secretly buried him at DASO school.
Phiri had gotten the baby and after its mother discovered that the baby was missing, she asked him where the child was but he kept on changing statements about the whereabouts of the child.
On June 26, 2017 a resident of John Howard took Phiri to Chawama police station where he reported that he had murdered his son whom he buried within the school premises.
Phiri later took the police to the school premises and showed them where he had buried the toddler.
He also told the police that a bottle containing the remaining doom was in his house and indeed police found it under the bed.
Edward’s body was exhumed and a postmortem was conducted to establish the cause of death.
Chief resident magistrate Kenneth Mulife explained the murder charge to Phiri and told him that he would continue appearing for mention before him until such a time when the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) would commit his case to the High Court for trial. Phiri was detained in remand.
The case comes up for mention on August 29, 2017.