Maria Amakali
Windhoek-A man who admitted to biting off his wife’s lip was shocked this week when the Windhoek Magistrate’s Court in Katutura sentenced him to eight months in prison.
Johannes Lukas, 44, was disappointed that the court found him guilty and sentenced him to time in prison. Lukas, who collects wood for a living, was found guilty on a charge of assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm, read with the provisions of the Domestic Violence Act.
The prosecution said Lukas intentionally and unlawfully assaulted his wife Lavinia Paulus by biting off her upper lip. The prosecution further indicated that Lukas did the unthinkable, with intent to do grievous harm.
The incident took place near Otjomuise Brankbut Street at Agste Laan in the district of Windhoek on October 22, 2015.
While waiting to be escorted to prison for the start of his sentence, Lukas bitterly disappointed. “How can they send me to prison if I have kids waiting for me at home?” he asked in his native Oshwambo.
Lukas was arrested on November 6, 2015 after his wife reported the incident to the police. According to Lavinia Paulus, 33, their marriage was on the rocks after she found her husband in the company of another woman while seated in the car.
She allegedly enquired three times why the woman was in her husband’s company, to which neither responded.
“We started wrestling with my husband. At the time I had a pliers in my hands. However, through the wrestling my husband bit my upper lip off,” Paulus said.
She further testified that her husband was a violent man, who engaged in extra-marital affairs. According to Paulus, the woman found in the company of her husband was her husband’s mistress, who would move into their marital home whenever Paulus left town.
Paulus and Lukas are married and have four children together.
Although he pleaded not guilty to the charge, Lukas later confessed that was indeed responsible for deforming his wife’s face.