A farmhand will spend 15 years in jail for assaulting a sick woman he was hired to care for.
The woman later succumbed to her injuries at the hospital.
Kenneth Choker was employed by Wilson Sawil in 2016 to take care of Rosaline Sawil who was suffering from hypomania (a psychiatric condition that entails a period of increased energy and intense mood) she has nursed since 2003.
Due to her condition the sickly woman was often rude to her helpers and had ungovernable anger. Choker was later charged with manslaughter and convicted.
His appeal at the Court of Appeal flopped in December last year after three judges found that the evidence against him was firm and the punishment he was handed was reasonable.
In January 2019, the husband was told that the farmhand had beat up his wife using a hoe to restrain her.
He had hit her in the neck and right hip, and when asked why he did that, he said it was “so that she would fear him.”
The widower also confirmed to the court that his wife was a woman of ungovernable temper.
A postmortem showed the body had blue colouration with a 6cm long sutured incision on the right side of the neck and another incision on the back.
The lungs were swollen with pulmonary edema (a condition that comes as a result of too much fluid in the lungs).
In its final judgement on November 5, 2019, the High Court held that malice aforethought was not proved and found the accused guilty of the offence of manslaughter.
In upholding the judgement, the Court of Appeal judges said they are “satisfied that the learned judge did not act on any wrong principle, nor did she overlook material factors.”
“We also do not consider the
sentence excessive in the circumstances of this case,” the judges
said.
“We therefore decline the invitation to interfere with it.”
