A 16-YEAR-OLD boy has pleaded guilty to hitting another teenager in the head with a machete.
This is in a case in which the juvenile offender and two others are jointly charged with unlawful wounding.
It is alleged that on August 28, 2021 the juvenile offender unlawfully wounded Enock Tembo aged 18.
The juvenile offender had initially pleaded not guilty but when the case came up for trial, he admitted having committed the offence.
Facts of the matter are that on August 28, 2021 around 19:00 hours, the victim was at his sister’s house in Kanyama where he was sitting on a short wall fence with a friend named Sandra.
The victim then saw the juvenile offender in the company of two other unknown people.
The juvenile offender then produced a machete from his trousers and hit the complainant in the head.
The victim tried to defend himself and protect Sandra from being hit with the machete but another male suspect also hit him with the machete in the head and on the wrist.
The court heard that the juvenile offender and his colleague both had machetes.
The court also heard that due to the noise during the fracas, some neighbours came to the rescue of the victim.
The juvenile offender was then apprehended and taken to police.
Public prosecutor Sheria Miselo told the court that because of the injuries, the victim failed to go to police training school in Kanfinsa.
Miselo said the victim, who was injured at a time he had been picked to go for police training, had since been living in fear.
In mitigation, the juvenile offender’s lawyer said his client deserved leniency because he pleaded guilty and never wasted the court’s time.
The lawyer said the boy was undergoing counselling and was willing to reform and get rehabilitated.
“The juvenile offender indicated to me that he is very remorseful and sorry for what he did, he wishes to apologise to the court and also to the complainant, he is sorry and realized that the life of crime doesn’t pay,” said the lawyer.
The court set February 28, 2022 for presentation of a juvenile offender’s social welfare report and trial in the respect of two others who pleaded not guilty.
