The Sunday News
Robin Muchetu, Senior Reporter
EXPERTS in the field of psychiatry say crimes of passion are on the increase with a majority being caused by perpetrators who abuse drugs, alcohol and other substances.
This comes after Carlos Tinashe Chapenyama (23), a soldier killed his wife and her two siblings while his daughter Tlowi survived the brutal attack in New Magwegwe in Bulawayo two weeks ago. Dr Elina Poskochinova a forensic psychiatrist in Bulawayo said the Magwegwe incident left many with questions as his attack was rather strange.
“We cannot give a proper explanation at this stage but we have several mental health illnesses which can affect a person and that person can show an outburst of anger or episodes of unpredictable behaviour. It can be temporal epilepsy or substance induced psychosis,” she said.
“This crime, however, is very unusual because he killed his wife, her two sisters and even tried to kill his child, and finally tried to kill himself, we need to ascertain if he was sober during the time he committed the crime or he was drunk. After he is physically manageable he can then be taken to Mlondolozi Prison at Khami Maximum Prison.
“In my opinion we need to do a full observation of him one of them being an Electroencapheloram (EEG) which is a special investigation of the brain. It helps to diagnose conditions such as seizures, epilepsy, head injuries, brain tumours and sleeping disorders. It can also be used to confirm brain death,” she said.
Dr Poskochivova said Chapenyama performed what they call unpredictable psychomotor epilepsy, which includes impaired consciousness, emotional outbursts and abnormal acts. She said many a time, men kill their wives — just one murder— and according to the Mental Health Act protocol, anyone who does an unusual murder like the one in question of killing too many people must be under the assessment of a psychiatrist to evaluate his mental condition.
Furthermore, she said, after physical recovery from hospital, Chapenyama must be assessed by two Government doctors and a reception order must be sent to Mlondolozi for his full observation. For psychiatrists to act on the case they said there is a need for proper explanation from everyone around the accused person.
“We as psychiatrists cannot do an evaluation straight away after assessment of a patient because we need information from relatives and close friends about behaviour of the person. If he was suffering before especially Trauma Brain Injury (TBI),” she said.
Background is also important as it can reveal if he was suffering from substance misuse. She said they were overwhelmed with patients whom they deal with that have substance use disorders as they used to drink alcohol and smoke dagga. If the psychiatrists get such information from the family it will give vital clues when he is assessed.
“We get this information from the family who write an affidavit because in some cases the accused or a patient can hide it from us in fear of the serious crime they will have committed. So the family gives us all this information even about his school days if he had problems. Again if a member of the family has had a similar problem it is helpful information” she added.
Dr Poskochinova lamented that domestic violence was now common.
“We need to pay more attention to domestic violence and encourage counselling by psychologists if we have such people who are bought to the police stations and courts. If one is brought in for general assault they need counselling this is so as to prevent serious crimes. Usually when we have interviews with victims of domestic violence they say they had been suffering for a long time being physically abused by their partners, then it develops from general assault to attempted murder, finally to murder. We need prevention of these situations as some people actually need treatment for correction of their mental, substance abuse and personality disorders,” she said.
She added that more murders are committed in domestic violence so one call of domestic violence to the police is enough for intervention through counselling and evaluation by a psychiatrist of the perpetrator. The doctor said the police should not wait for serious crimes like murder to take action.
Another psychiatrist Dr Nemache Mawere from Bulawayo said marital issues were usually a source of conflict.
“When there is a conflict situation anything can happen. It depends on how people manage their anger, it can manifest as aggression and aggression can take any form. He also could have a mental health problem that pushed him to kill. There is, however, something called paranoia; he could have been suspecting that his wife was cheating, so that paranoia can make people act this way. Some get to the extent of hearing voices of people they cannot see or hallucinations, a commanding voice can be telling one to do something that bad,” he said.
Dr Mawere said the magistrate dealing with the case then has to decide if the accused has a mental problem or not, if the family gives evidence of some mentally illness then the family must reveal that so that it assists in evaluations. He added that men who abuse substances develop erectile dysfunctions which makes them assume that their wives will be engaging in affairs elsewhere. Dr Mawere said the attempted murder of the child was actually attempted mercy killing.
“This soldier could have intended to just kill the wife and himself, and then he thought who would care for the child when they are dead and he tried to kill the child. It is vey common with women, we see them jumping in front of trains with babies strapped on their backs, not common in men though,” he said.
However, he said as psychiatrists they recommend that if an officer has a mental problem they are referred to specialists and banned from using dangerous weapons. He also lamented the use of social media by young people who see some situations as normal.
“Young people are exposed to social media where love triangles have been normalised so they think it’s okay to follow but then it leads to such undesirable happenings. Society does not really frown upon some things, men have two or three girlfriends and he is not reprimanded but actually he is made a hero. Crimes of passion then occur when relationships like this are discovered,” he said.
Dr Mawere encouraged families to solve their problems early and discourage mediators from encouraging women to go back to abusive relationships.
