A man who tried to kill his ex-girlfriend by slashing her with a machete in 2015 has had his appeal against sentence dismissed by the Court of Appeal.
Mogomotsi Keikeditse who brutally attacked his ex-lover in front of their three young children was convicted and sentenced to ten years imprisonment by a Gaborone High Court.
According to the facts of the case, the police received a report on March 23rd, 2014 that Mositiemang was being assaulted by her ex-boyfriend Keikeditse.
On arrival at the scene, the police noticed that the house was locked but the sitting room window was opened. They heard screams for help inside the house.
They drew the curtain and saw Mositiemang lying on the floor in a pool of blood.
Keikeditse was standing over her, holding a machete in his hand.
He was ordered to open the door and so he did.
Keikeditse’s two young children were inside the house at the time. “The two children were crying at the top of their voices inside one of the rooms,” reads the court paper.
The Police observed wounds on her head, chin, wrists, shoulder, arms, and leg.
During trial, the victim’s eldest daughter told the court that on the fateful night at around 2030 hours she was home with her mother Mositiemang.
She says she went outside the house to empty the dustbin and as she got outside the house she met Keikeditse.
When she returned she found Keikeditse arguing with her mother inside the kitchen and she took her two siblings into one of the rooms.
“From that room she could hear that her mother and Keikeditse were talking in raised voices. She peeped through the door she saw Keikeditse slashing her mother with a machete. The blow was directed at her head but was deflected by the complainant (Mositiemang). The machete landed on her arm which bled profusely,” reads the court record.
The Victim herself had previously told the court that she met her assailant back in May 2010 at a bridal shower and they fell in love at first sight.
She says he immediately moved in with her at her place of residence.
According to her testimony, they lived together until she was transferred to Kasane from Goodhope.
She told the court that she terminated their relationship when the physical abuse began.
According to the victim, on the night in question, Keikeditse told her he had come to finish what he started. Luckily she managed to derail him for a bit and called 999.
When he realised she had called the Police he started to strike her with the machete, she blocked some of the strikes but some blows landed on her head. She was hospitalized for six months.
The court further learned that on the night in question Keikeditse had left his new girlfriends’ home to go for a jog.
In his defence Keikeditse told the court that on the fateful day he had gone for a jog and happened to pass by Mositiemang house.
He says she asked him to discuss ‘something’ to which he says he agreed reluctantly.
According to his defense she started arguing and quarreling and then attacked him with a machete that she took from her bathroom.
He says Mositiemang sustained injuries because they had been wrestling for the machete. “I took the machete and poked her on her chin and on the forehead,” he told the court during the trial.
At the appeals court, however, the judges agreed with the judgment handed down by the lower court. “The injuries sustained by the complainant on the head are not consistent with poking. They are consistent with chopping,” reads the CoA judgment.
“In the circumstances of this case, where the appellant (Keikeditse) struck and slashed his defenseless victim several times, causing very serious injuries, it cannot be said that a sentence of 10 years imprisonment is excessive. On the contrary, the appellant must count himself lucky that the state did not cross-appeal on the sentence,” reads the judgment delivered this past Wednesday.
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