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Mchinji woman kills her three children

 

A 38-year-old Mchinji woman with mental illness on Wednesday killed her three children aged between 11 and five at her farm in Manthalu Village, Traditional Authority (T/A) Mavwere in the district.

The woman, Violet Phiri, allegedly killed her children Chisomo (11) Limbani (nine), and Richard Mwale (five) by hitting them with a hoe handle and then hacking them with a hoe.

Violet handcuffed to a wheel-barrow at Mchinji Police Station
Violet handcuffed to a wheel-barrow at Mchinji Police Station

Her brother, Charles Phiri, said she has a history of mental illness and she could at at times demonstrate aggressive behaviour by throwing her children, especially when they were young, on the ground, but would later care for them very well.

“The children have been staying with our mother [their grandmother], but on Wednesday Violet took them to the farm where she hit them on the head one by one, hacked them and then carried one of the children to her house and covered her with a cloth,” he said.

Phiri said she covered the other two children with leaves and left them at the farm.

In an interview at Mchinji Police Station, Violet, who looked deranged and shabby, said she hacked the children because she has an illness and that in her own words ‘ndimagwa’.

She said the children did not ran away when she knocked them with a hoe, and died afterwards.

Violet, who had blood stains on her clothes, narrated how she killed the three boys, saying she had to do the ‘deed’.

Mchinji police spokesperson Moses Nyirenda said they are still investigating the issue before taking Violet to Mchinji District Hospital for further medical examination.

The bodies of the three children are being kept at Mchinji District Hospital mortuary. n

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