Francistown High Court has declared alleged child abuser and murderer Peter Modisaotsile of Tonota not only a flight risk but a danger to public safety particularly to children who is not eli-gible for bail.
36-year-old Modisaotsile of Maaloso ward in Tonota is charged of brutally killing 10-year-old girl, Loretta Mongwa who was wheelchair bound on the 27th of December last year. Investiga-tions by Police reveal that Loretta was the child to Modisaotsile’s girlfriend. After murdering the minor, Modisaotsile fled from the scene in Manyanda only to be arrested with the aid of relatives four days later.
“Granting him bail will jeopardise the proper functioning of the justice system as well as the bail system. It is the responsibility of the judiciary to draw the line for those who demonstrate that their release back into society on bail will endanger the safety of the fiscus and other members of society”, ruled Justice Slave.
“I have come to the conclusion that bail should not be allowed for the accused. The applicant is not only a flight risk but also a threat to public safety.”
Justice Slave also highlighted that Modisaotsile did not dispute there is a pending threat to kill in which is alleged to threatened to kill his biological child.
“Notably, the murder case involves an eight-year-old as the victim, which illustrates a concerning trend of behavior towards children. The Court also take note of the prevalence of the offence in the country. There is an excessive number of instances of murder involving minors”, pointed Jus-tice Slave.
When giving evidence before Court, Investigating Officer of the case, Tshupoeng Oreeditse stat-ed, “he was left with the disabled child, the mother going out for entertainment. When he left the house, he phoned the deceased’s mother notifying her where he put the keys. His girlfriend quickly rushed home around 1 am and when she unlocked the door, she found her daughter hanging from the rafters. The house was intact with no sign of breakage, that is why we suspect him.”
Oreeditse added after the committal of the offence, the accused person switched off his phones and fled to his other relatives’ place where he told them he was spending the night and asked that they wake him up at 5 in the morning.
“The other thing is, this is a serious offence involving a minor, there is likelihood that he will evade justice as he already did after the incident,” the IO argued.
