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Suspect in Ella murder admits violent struggle
By
Staff Reporter
THE Cameroonian man of trial for the murder of a Zimbabwean nurse in
Colchester, England, has told a court that he made contact with her
“neck region” during a violent struggle on the day she died.
The Chelmsford Crown Court also heard for the first time this week that Daniel Tambengwa, 30, entered Britain “illegally” using a Belgian passport.
He denies the murder of girlfriend Ella Chimweta, 32, at their home in the Highwoods area of Colchester last July.
Taking the witness stand in his trial, Tambengwa told the court he had rowed with Chimweta, a nurse at Colchester General Hospital, and the couple had a physical confrontation as he tried to leave their flat.
Tambengwa, who had just completed a degree in bio-medical science, said he left for a few hours and had found her lifeless body when he returned. “It wasn't real,” he told the jury on Wednesday.
Chimweta’s body was discovered after a week by an 11-year-old girl who had been staying with the couple. The girl, now aged 12 years old, had allegedly been told that Ella Chimweta had gone “out of town” for work when she was actually lying dead in her bedroom covered by clothes and luggage.
After her grim discovery, the court heard, she went outside and told a passer-by. A police officer has told the trial she was “hysterical”.
The nurse's body was so badly decomposed it was impossible to know exactly how she had died but the court has been told that her injuries were consistent with strangulation.
Tambengwa, who was arrested in Cameroon after fleeing Britain, admitted the tussle with Chimweta, but said he had not intended to hurt her.
He said they had argued and she had asked him to leave, but then had a change of heart.
“When I was about to leave she locked the door and said I wasn't going anywhere,” he told the court.
“I knew she didn't want me to go but I just wanted to clear my head and get out. I tried to run through the door and she grabbed me from behind.”
He said he eventually got her off him by twisting her wrists but admitted it “might be a possibility” that when pushing her away, he may have made contact with her “neck region” with the palms of his hands.
Tambengwa told the jury that he had left the flat and had sat in his car around the corner for a few hours before returning to the flat to discover her lying on the bedroom floor.
“I thought that she was asleep and I said 'why are you sleeping on the floor? Go to bed and I will sleep on the sofa in the lounge'.”
He said he then watched television for about half an hour before returning to the room again.
“I shoved her. I didn't get any response so I did lift her from the floor on to the bed. I tried to find a pulse. I tried to give her the kiss of life and gave her chest compressions.
“I was shocked because I knew I just pushed her and it wasn't real. I tried to bring her around but I convinced myself she was just asleep - it wasn't real.”
Tambengwa, who has pleaded not guilty to murder, also denies allegations that he had tried to engage the 11-year-old girl in sexual activity and watch a pornographic film.
“When I was first arrested and interviewed I was presented about this… it came as a shock to me. I didn't do any of those things,” he said.
Tambengwa denied that he had intentionally visited the websites, which portrayed a man indulging in acts with a teenage girl, and said they were “pop ups” that he had tried to close down.
Prosecution barrister Richard Christie QC asked the defendant whether his partner had been aware that he had been looking at such websites with the young girl in the flat and whether they had rowed about it later that day.
Tambengwa said: “The pages were pop ups. Prior to looking at that site I was looking for jobs and post graduate courses. I spent less than a minute - it was seconds.”
He said Chimweta did not know and would have been “upset” if she had, but that they had watched other pornography together in the past.
Christie then asked him: “Were you fantasising about such encounters?” Tambengwa replied: “No.”
The trial has previously heard evidence from the young girl, from Zimbabwe, who cannot be named for legal reasons.
She told the court that Tambengwa had tried to make her watch a pornographic film and tried to engage her in sexual activity.
The jury of eight men and four women heard the girl describe how she had last seen Chimweta on July 8 in the evening.
She said the following day when she got up, Tambengwa, 30, was awake and in the sitting room of the ground floor flat.
“I was coming from the bathroom and I had a towel wrapped around me,” she said.
“I got into my bedroom and Daniel followed me and he says he was told to teach me adult things…he came and tried to remove my towel.”
The witness said she had resisted his efforts and Tambengwa then told her he needed to see her genitals, claiming Chimweta had asked him to because she thought there was something wrong with them.
The girl said she again refused and Tambengwa then asked if she wanted to watch a Nigerian movie or a pornographic one.
After she chose the Nigerian one and watched it, the pair went shopping and on their return Tambengwa allegedly put on the pornographic film.
The girl said he then asked her if she wanted “to try what is being done on the telly” and when she refused he asked if she was “disrespecting” him and that Chimweta had sent him to teach her.
The court heard that later that day Tambengwa told the girl he was going to collect his girlfriend and they were going to work together out of town and left a phone number for her in case of an emergency.
The court heard that a few days later Tambengwa booked a flight and fled to Cameroon after enlisting the help of the young girl to untie and shave off his dreadlocks.
The youngster said: “I was at home all these days and then this day I wanted to go and have a bath and my lotion had run out so I went into Ella's bedroom to get the lotion and that is when I smelt this smell.
“When I went round the bed I just saw these piles of things. I moved the blanket that was on the top and that's when I noticed Ella's trousers and there was something in the trousers when I touched it.
“I went outside to ask for help.”
The trial continues.
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