WINDHOEK – Convicted rapist Timoteus Fillemon, released on earned remission in 20 December 2016, has been once again accused of committing another heinous crime of allegedly battering his four-year-old nephew to death with an axe handle.
The incident happened this week at Iikokola village in the house of Loide Timoteus in Tsandi Constituency in the Omusati Region.
After being released on parole, Fillemon allegedly made two attempts to kill his two nieces, both aged nine years, and one attempt to rape his 11-year-old niece in Windhoek.
Having failed in those bids, he travelled to his village in the north where he injured another niece - who got treated at Tsandi State Hospital, before proceeding to kill his four-year-old nephew on Monday.
Fillemon’s elder sister Sarti Iyambo told New Era that her incarcerated brother was regarded as the most dangerous sibling growing up, especially from 2007 when he was accused of raping an underage child.
“We were all shocked. We then rendered him our support until he was sentenced to 10 years in prison. He served his term in different prisons until I received a call informing me that he was released on remission and will be under special care,” she lamented.
Iyambo then decided to accommodate her younger brother at her place in Havana informal settlement in Katutura.
Fillemon was to report to the Windhoek Central Correctional Service once in a month and was not allowed to travel outside town.
“I just brought problem into my house. He began to hurt me when I caught him red-handed trying to rape my daughter, aged 11 years. I was so terrified. I asked him why he was doing so and he answered that he has an inner voice that tells him to commit crimes,” she sadly narrated.
She said she has informed the family about the first incident and she suggested he must be taken in for special counseling, but the family refused as it feared he would be arrested again.
“I left my children at home while he was out. When he came home, he decided to attack my nine-year-old son with an object threatening to kill him. I again asked him why he is doing that and he said his inner voice insists that he must kill,” she further explained.
She said she then called for a family meeting where he was questioned by elders, whom he told he heard a voice telling him to do illicit acts.
Iyambo conceded that she did not report any of the incidents to the police as per the family elders’ instructions.
She was surprised when the brother, on short notice, said he was going to the village up north.
“I tried to stop him from going there but it was too late since he has already taken his backpack. But I tried warning my younger sister who is now staying at our late mother’s house that he is on his way. She was willing to go out of the house and stay somewhere else, but she did not do it immediately,” she explained.
A few days after his arrival, Fillemon allegedly attacked his niece with a stick, injuring her badly in the process. The kid is still receiving treatment at Tsandi hospital.
The girl in this instance was born by the accused sister who is not Iyambo.
“Just after two days when we agreed that he must be reported to the police, he killed our nephew. And he is still telling us that he has acted based on the instructions of his inner voice,” she said.
According to Raphael Hamunyela, the Commissioner General of the Namibian Correctional Services, Fillemon was released on moderate supervision level, which required him to report once a month at Windhoek Correctional Facility, after he served six years and six months of his 10-year sentence. There is no record of psychiatric evaluation in his file, said Hamunyela.
“Earned remission is a privilege of reduction of a sentence of an inmate by reason of meritorious conduct and industry, during the period of serving the sentence in a correctional facility. An inmate may earn remission of such sentence equivalent to one third of the total term of imprisonment,” explained the Commissioner-General.
He said that privilege do not apply to an inmate who is a habitual criminal, sentence to life imprisonment or sentenced for the schedule crimes (i.e treason, murder, robbery etc.)
Hamunyela said most of the offenders released on parole or remission never commits crimes again, however, Thomas Menas Ifenya who was released on earned remission committed an offence of murder on the 14th of March 2019. Ifenya killed two boys and seriously injured the grandmother in Ombalantu, Omusati Region.
The Namibian police in the region confirmed the recent incident saying the deceased was found alone in the house by his uncle while her mother went to the local cucashops, he took an axe handle and assault the deceased, killing him instantly there after the suspect took the lifeless body of the deceased into the deceased biological mother’s room, he then left to the shebeen to inform the biological mother of the deceased, that her child is critical ill at home. To the surprise, the mother found her child lying in the pool of blood dead.
Timoteus Fillemon, 37, years has been arrested and appeared at Okahao Magistrate’s Court. He was remanded in custody and the case has been postponed.
Caption (Pic : Convict):
Timoteus Fillemon, 37, who appeared before the magistrate’s court at Okahao this week after he bludgeoned his nephew to death with an axe handle.