A man who killed seven people in a knife and spear rampage in Redcliff is mentally unfit to stand trial, a court heard on yesterday.
Thubeihle Kheshow, 26, was examined by two psychiatrists on the orders of a court and they both returned a verdict that he has mental health problems.
Kheshow has since been committed to Mlondolozi Mental Health Prison in Bulawayo for further management and treatment.
“Two doctors examined him under the Mental Health Act and discovered that he is not well,” Kwekwe district prosecutor Yeukai Mugumba told magistrate Florence Nago.
Describing Kheshow as a danger to society, Mugumba continued: “If he does not go on trial owing to his illness, a special verdict will be handed down by the High Court. A special verdict can either find one not guilty or guilty, depending on the gravity of the matter.”
Kheshow was charged with seven counts of murder, attempted murder and rape after a frenzied early morning attack on his victims in Redcliff’s Stone Clare suburb.
Kheshow’s mental health problems were already known to his family and community. After he became violent at around 3AM on October 9, his aunt took him to an Apostolic sect shrine nearby in the hope prayers can heal him.
The court heard that when he got to the shrine, Kheshow became even more violent, uprooting trees and pushing stationary vehicles causing congregants to subdue him and tie him with a rope.
Kheshow broke free sometime before sunrise and returned home where he armed himself with three spears, a kitchen knife and an axe before going to his uncle’s house where he broke down the front door to gain entry.
His uncle and other relatives fled through the bedroom window, leaving four children sleeping in the dining room.
They later returned home and found the children with multiple stab wounds. Three of the children aged seven years, three years and seven months later died from their injuries.
The parents sought refuge at a police officer’s house nearby and the suspect followed them and stabbed the cop in the back with a spear, injuring him.
He fatally stabbed a 33-year-old man and further seriously injured three other people. One of the three injured later died in hospital.
Kheshow returned to his house and killed two women aged 56 and 86 to death before raping his uncle’s wife.
