Nat Molomo

A MARRIED Maseru woman who fell pregnant by her boyfriend recently shocked the court when she confessed to conniving with her husband to kill her new born baby.

The Maseru Magistrate’s Court heard on Monday that ‘Marealeboha Lehasa (18) fell pregnant while she was on separation from her husband Mahooana Lehasa (29) last year.

However, the two then mended their relations before she delivered her baby. The duo then hatched a plan to kill the “illegitimate” baby.

Between 1 November 2019 and 31 January 2020, Ms Lehasa delivered the baby with the assistance of her husband, who immediately strangled the newly born with his wife’s consent. They then wrapped the corpse in plastic bag before burying it in a shallow grave.

According to the evidence outline Ms Lehasa confided in one of her neighbours that her husband had assisted her to deliver the baby and then “strangled the child and then they put the body into a plastic and buried it”.

The neighbour reported the matter to the village chief who, in turn, reported to the police, who carried out investigations, leading to the arrest of the couple.

The couple was charged for contravening sections of the Penal Code Act No.6 of 2010 when they appeared before Maseru Magistrate ‘Manapo Motebele.

Ms Motebele initially fined the couple M10 000 each but they failed to raise the amount and were sent to prison.