*Teen sentenced to life for killing aunt in cold blood before violating her corpse* https://thevoiceonlinenews.com/6itb ___________________________________ `June 13, 2025` ___________________________________ > *Follow The Voice Online News WhatsApp channel:* https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaPRQqTHrDZdGRK5yH43 ___________________________________ > *Share The Voice Online News WhatsApp group link:* https://chat.whatsapp.com/DjU5F7Goh3M6M4XSkg81Gx ___________________________________ > *To advertise with The Voice Online News, talk to us here:* https://wa.me/message/PLR6ANGW2RX4I1 ___________________________________ HIGH Court judge, Justice Munamato Mutevedzi has expressed concern over some cases judges preside over further noting that crimes that are being committed around Zimbabwe may suggest that the world is coming to an end. The judge also said court officials would require psychological support for them to cope with things they hear in court everyday. Mutevedzi said this while handing down sentence against one Tapiwa Mereka (19) at the Gweru High Court. Mereka was found guilty of the gruesome murder of his mother’s sister Mary Mereka on January 27, 2023, and also raping her lifeless body. Mutevedzi said Mereka deserved capital sentence adding that he is fortunate that death penalty had been scrapped. “If it is true that on some day God will destroy the world, then that time is nigh. Some of the crimes that we preside over suggest that Armageddon is imminent. “Tapiwa Mereka (the offender) has a head but it is doubtful that he has a brain inside it. If he does, then his mind is so perverted and depraved that he should not be living amongst human beings. “The crime that he committed is unconscionable and would possibly win an Oscar award for horror movies. “Every one of us who took part in the trial would be thinking about this for a long time to come. “It lays bare, the oft-repeated myth that judges are inanimate. “The reality is that judicial officers and other court officials who work in the criminal courts and hear these horrific stories almost on a daily basis may suffer what is called vicarious trauma. “They all may end up requiring therapy in one form or another,” Mutevedzi said. The court heard Mereka had plotted to rape and kill his aunt for a long time. In his warned and cautioned statement accused person admitted that he always admired her and wanted to sleep with her. He was biding his time and waiting for an opportune moment to strike. He said the idea became maddening some three days before the murder and could not shake off the desire and lust to have sexual intercourse with his aunt. He convinced himself to carry out the satanic idea on the fateful morning. “I do admit to the allegations levelled against me. The deceased was my aunt but I had quite some time admiring her and I wished that I have some time to rape her. “I also had the intention to kill her. I had no valid reason but I just felt that I have to kill her. “So, when I was with her in the field weeding together with her I then got the chance and took an axe which was in the field and struck her three times on the head whilst she was not expecting it. “After striking her she fell down. I removed her pant and had sexual intercourse with her. “After I finished I dressed her and took the axe and threw it outside the field and went to Sebakwe River with the intention to stay there,” Mereka admitted. The teenager said at the time the time of the sex, the deceased was still alive although in a vegetative state. Mutevedzi said even imagining that his victim was dead by the time he committed the abomination, his actions would have amounted to the crime of violating a dead body in contravention of section 111 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act. He said in other jurisdictions, it would have been the crime of necrophilia, which criminalises any sexual attraction to a dead person. The judge said this aggravates Mereka’s situation. “Having found that the murder is aggravated there cannot be escaping the severest punishment. “Before the abolition of the penalty of death from our statute books this was a case that would have undoubtedly attracted capital punishment. “Needless to state, that option is no longer available. The only two choices which the court has are sentencing the offender either to life imprisonment or to a determinate term of not less than 20 years.” “What is worse is that he said he was prepared to kill for no reason. He is, therefore, a dangerous individual whom the court cannot risk letting back into society. “He may kill again— for nothing else other than his enjoyment. “He appears worse than a robber who kills for financial gain because it is possible to resist that more than a desire that one cannot explain. “It is like the offender gets possessed by some irresistible spirit. Given the above, our hands are, therefore, tied. It is difficult to empathise with the offender. “If he could be so sadistic as to easily kill his own mother and still find sexual gratification from her in that state of helplessness, we shudder to think what he could possibly do to a stranger or to children. “He is someone whose soul must be left to God to correct. As a court, we can do no more than administer justice. “We will permanently remove him from society and confine him to the secure walls of a prison. “Accordingly, the offender is sentenced to life imprisonment,” the judge ruled. – _*NewZimbabwe*_