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Patrick Chitumba Midlands Bureau Chief
A HOUSEMAID who assaulted a 10-month-old baby until he bled from the nose as punishment for attempting to go outside has been told she faces jail. Vimbai Machokoto, 20, pleaded guilty to child abuse before a Kwekwe magistrate yesterday and will be sentenced on March 3.

Kwekwe resident magistrate Taurai Manwere is weighing a custodial sentence for Machokoto, who was employed by Gertrude Mugore, the wife of a police officer based at ZRP Camp Silobela.

Machokoto, asked by the magistrate why she abused the toddler, said she assaulted the baby to stop him from going outside the house.

“He wanted to go out of the house to play but I’d been instructed by his mother not to let him go out since there was an inspection in the police camp,” said Machokoto.

“So I beat him up because if he had gone outside he was going to soil the veranda and the yard which I’d cleaned.”

A visibly shocked Manwere asked the maid if she was “normal” to assault a 10-month-old baby over such a trivial matter.

Fortunate Mbizvo, prosecuting, told the court that on Tuesday this week, at a house in ZRP Camp Silobela, Machokoto was left with the baby by her employers.

When Mugore returned home around 1PM, she was told that her son was asleep.

“Mugore then waited for her son to wake up as she normally finds him asleep,” said Mbizvo.

At around 2PM, Mugore became suspicious why the child was still asleep and went to investigate.

She opened the blanket that was covering her son’s face and discovered that he was swollen and blood was coming out of his nose. “Mugore questioned Machokoto about what had happened to her son and she lied that he had fallen,” the prosecutor said.

Mbizvo said Mugore took her son to the police where it was observed that he had been beaten, leading to Machokoto’s arrest and the baby was taken to hospital.

In an interview outside the court, Mugore advised parents and guardians to carefully select their maids.

She said Machokoto’s conviction was not going to remove the scars left on her son.

“I didn’t think that it could happen in my own home. I saw a video clip of a housemaid from Uganda abusing a child and I never thought that it could happen to my child. I’m so depressed,” she said.

In December last year, a Ugandan maid was sentenced to four years in jail for assaulting a toddler, in a case which sparked outrage across the world after a video of the incident was released.

Jolly Tumuhiirwe, 22, was filmed by CCTV beating, kicking and stamping on the 18-month-old child.