Gulf News, Thursday, May 26, 2011
Leicester, England – A young woman who repeatedly stabbed her mother as she slept has walked free from court after a judge accepted she believed she was acting on the instructions of evil spirits.
Lorraine Mbulawa, 20, donned dark clothes, gloves and a home-made balaclava and attacked her mother with a kitchen knife. The 43-year-old victim saved herself by grabbing the weapon, but suffered serious face and arm injuries.
Mbulawa, who was 18 at the time, was cleared of attempted murder at Leicester Crown Court earlier this year but convicted of unlawful wounding.
Psychiatrists said she was not mad and the jury agreed that she knew what she was doing.
However, the A-level student, who was born in Zimbabwe, escaped with a 12 month suspended prison sentence and was ordered to do 120 hours of unpaid work.
Passing sentence, Justice Keith said he accepted the defendant had strong beliefs in witchcraft and thought she was possessed by the spirit of her dead grandmother at the time of the attack in May 2009.
Geeta Chhabra
