By 
Lusaka High Court Judge, Mwape Bowa, has sentenced businessman Blackford Phiri to life imprisonment for the brutal murder of five-year-old Justine Mvula Jr., the son of his former lover.
The tragic case stemmed from a failed romance between Phiri and Memory Chilala, a tenant renting from him.
Their relationship evolved into a love affair, and Chilala’s young son grew attached to Phiri, calling him “Daddy.”
However, when Chilala ended the relationship and moved out, Phiri’s emotions took a dark turn—leading to an act of vengeance that cost an innocent child his life.
On September 10, 2019, Chilala, a businesswoman, left her son in the care of a friend as part of her daily routine.
But when she returned, Justine was missing.
A neighborhood child revealed that Justine had last been seen at Phiri’s house.
When confronted, Phiri denied any knowledge of the boy’s whereabouts. Suspicious, Chilala reported the matter to the police.
What followed was a horrifying discovery—Justine’s lifeless body was found dumped in Silverest, wrapped in two 25kg mealie-meal sacks. A plastic bag was tied around his head with polythene string.
The prosecution presented strong circumstantial evidence, leading the court to only one conclusion—Phiri was responsible for the murder.
A child witness testified that Justine was at Phiri’s house on the day he disappeared.
The mealie-meal sacks used to wrap Justine’s body matched those found at Phiri’s home, and the same type of polythene string used to tie the plastic bag around Justine’s head was found in Phiri’s house.
A post-mortem examination by Dr. Luchenga Adam Mucheleng’anga confirmed Justine died from manual strangulation, with signs of oxygen deprivation.
Judge Bowa dismissed Phiri’s defense that the strings in his house were for tying broiler chickens or bicycle pumps, ruling that Phiri, driven by bitterness, had taken out his rage on the innocent child.
The court found that Phiri had used his position of trust to lure Justine into his house before strangling him.
He then placed the child’s body in mealie-meal sacks, tied a plastic bag over his head, and transported the remains on his bicycle to a secluded dumping site.
In his ruling, Judge Bowa stated that the circumstantial evidence had taken the case out of the realm of conjecture and attained such a level of cogency that it permitted only one inference—that it was Phiri, and no one else, who committed the crime.
Finding Phiri guilty of murder beyond a reasonable doubt, the court sentenced him to life imprisonment.
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