THE Katete teacher who allegedly killed his wife using a machete told Chipata High Court in his defence that the deceased was in love with another man.

Tobias Mwale, 33, a teacher at Omelo Mumba Primary School, has told the court that his deceased wife, Mumba Kalaba, was cheating on him as she was in love with another man in Kasama district.

He testified before judge Mwamba Chanda how he killed his wife with a machete on July 16, 2017, after a fight when the deceased decided to pick up a call from her lover.

Mwale told the court how he found his wife’s long romantic WhatsApp conversation and phone messages before the fight started on the material date.

He further told the court that he found pornographic pictures of whites and half-naked pictures of his wife and her lover in the deceased’s phone.

Mwale also testified that during the fight over his wife’s lover, Darlington of Kasama, Kalaba told him that he was not a good man and that she loved Darlington.

“I felt very bad, I felt betrayed my lady after a call and I discovered texts, calls and half naked pictures of my late wife with a man, half naked. I called Darlington whose number is 0974829900, who confirmed he was in a love relationship with my wife but indicated that he was not aware that she was married,” he said.

Mwale said a fight ensued in the bedroom where Kalaba told him he was not man enough and that was the reason she loved Darlington who was better than him.

He told the court that it was at that point that he felt sudden anger and he picked a machete, which he used to kill her.

“My wife during the fight told me I was not a better man. But I asked her where that better man was when I was sponsoring her at Chipata Nursing School. But she answered that ‘Darlington was a better man, so what?’ At that point, my lady, I felt sudden anger and where I was standing there was a machete, which I bought in 2016 due to high crime rate in the area. I grabbed the machete and started…I don’t know how I can describe it, my lady,” Mwale said apologetically.

He told the court that his wife fell down in the bedroom and Mervis Zulu opened his bedroom door.

Mwale told the court that his neighbour, Lawrence, came with other people who went to Katete police station to report the matter and he accompanied them.

He, however, said he wanted the police to assist him take the wife, who was bleeding heavily after he wounded her, to the hospital but they detained him and charged him with murder.

However, defence lawyer Senior Legal Aid counsel John Phiri made an application for the court to refer the phone of the deceased to experts for the purpose of overriding the password, which made some evidence – pictures and messages – missing.

“My lady I have an application to make, that the phone produced in this court be referred to experts for the purpose of overriding the password for the cause of furnishing this court and ascertaining the accused’s phone number and the deceased whether the accused called him on 16 July 2017 as alleged,” Phiri said.

He further applied that all pictures be retrieved from the phone and be published and be produced in court.

Phiri also said his application to take the suspect for mental examination to establish the mental status at a time of crime was still valid.

Judge Chanda said the application was granted and ordered the defence to provide the court with a report from medical doctors on the mental status of the suspect during the time he committed the crime.

She also ordered the production of call records from the deceased’s phone and the accused to establish the truth on whether he called her on the material day when he was reported to be at church.

Judge Chanda adjourned the matter.