IT is almost eight years since former Hollins Park nurse Tatenda Mhute was tragically killed while visiting relatives in Zimbabwe.
But as the days, months and years have passed by, time has stood still for the heartbroken family of the 31-year-old after hearing of Tatenda’s death on Tuesday, October 7, 2008.
Her older brother Andrew, who lives in Penketh, says the family are still left with many unanswered questions and fear they may never know the truth surrounding his sister’s death.
The 43-year-old said: “There are several strands as to why I am speaking about this now. It has been an uphill struggle to get justice and my father had been forced to bang on doors to make sure this case was heard before the courts.”
Tatenda, who had moved to Warrington in 1998, travelled to Harare with her 36-year-old husband Michael Mhute and their three-year-old son Kudzai on September 26, 2008.
The couple, who were due to fly back to the UK on October 27, had been on a night out at Monako nightclub on October 4 and returned home the following morning.
In court documents, her husband Michael claimed the couple began to argue over turning on the water tank.
Tatenda was found the next day by her mum Bertha Kapfunde, who discovered her daughter on a blood-soaked bed in a battered and unresponsive state.
Mrs Kapfunde called an ambulance for Tatenda and she was admitted to hospital where medics discovered she was in a coma and had fractures to her skull and jaw.
The young mum never regained consciousness and died of her injuries two days later.
The cause of death was later ruled as an injury to the head.
Michael was subsequently arrested by Zimbabwe police after admitting assaulting his wife and was charged with her murder.
In court documents seen by the Warrington Guardian, he claimed Tatenda fell from the bed resulting in the head injury but this was dismissed by a judge who described it as a ‘brutal and merciless assault’.
A delay in almost six years for the court hearing forced her family to endure even more agony as they desperately waited for answers.
A judge ruled last year that Michael was guilty of culpable homicide as he did not have the intention to commit murder.
He was sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment with two years suspended for five years on the condition he does not commit any unlawful killings.
In the years leading up to the court case Michael had been on bail and had remarried and fathered another child with his new wife.-Warrington Guardian
