Man who 'cut out victim's heart and ate it' faces sentencing

A Zimbabwean man who cut out another man's heart and ate it with a knife and fork faces sentencing in South Africa.

Andrew Chimboza, 35, pleaded guilty to stabbing 62-year-old Mbuyiselo Manona to death on 10 June 2014 in Gugulethu, the same township in which Anni Dewani was killed in November 2010.

Chimboza, who ran a window-tinting business, claimed Manona had attacked him in a jealous rage after he called on the victim's girlfriend's house to check on some work he had done.

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Chimboza retaliated by slitting his throat and stabbing him multiple times. He said he had chopped out the victim's heart because it was "full of hatred and jealousy", but said he did not know why he had eaten it.

"I was so shocked at what the deceased had accused me of I let him hit me but that then made me angry – so I kicked him between the legs, grabbed a fork and stabbed him," Chimboza said.

"I do not know why I ate it and I accept my actions were wrong and exceeded the boundaries of self-defence.

"I sit upon him and stabbed him on the chest, tore out his heart and took a knife and then sliced his heart and then I ate his heart."

In court, prosecutor Quawnita Geyer told Chimboza: "All the witnesses that were there confirm you killed the deceased, you cut out his heart and ate it. They say there was flesh in your teeth and dry blood on your mouth."

Before deciding the sentence, judge Ashley Binns-Ward ordered Chimboza to undergo a mental evaluation, reports News 24.

However, the panel of experts said it was impossible to predict whether he would pose a danger to society, pointing out that he did not have a history of habitual violence and scored low on rating scales for risk assessment and psychopathy. He also had no mental illness.