A United Kingdom (UK) based Zimbabwean herbalist who killed a woman last year by giving her too much nicotine during a healing ritual, causing her “toxic trauma”, has been slapped with a two-year jail term.
Lyndon Nindi traveled to Nottingham on the 16th of February last year to treat a UK-based Zimbabwean woman Sophia Jekecha’s stomach problems.
reports that Nottingham Crown Court heard that the 49-year-old was following a “traditional” Zimbabwean system using tobacco in the form of snuff, causing her to collapse.
Judge Gregory Dickinson QC said Nindi went beyond his “skill and understanding”.
Nindi, of Kinross Drive in Newcastle, had pleaded guilty to manslaughter and administering a noxious substance.
He was jailed for two years on Friday.
The court heard the use of snuff is a “culturally recognized” part of Zimbabwean traditional healing and is intended to make a “spiritual connection” with the patient’s ancestors.
Jekecha, 36 and like the defendant, born in Zimbabwe, had seen her GP about her stomach problems, but when they persisted her mother contacted Nindi, who acted as a traditional healer and was to be paid £150 plus travel expenses for treating her.
The court was told he arrived on the day of her death and had reassured her relatives she would be safe.
Jekecha had ingested snuff nasally, orally, and by having it rubbed into her skin.
She subsequently collapsed, and despite paramedics arriving she was pronounced dead shortly before 19:00 GMT.
Police found Jekecha died of nicotine poisoning and that she had an undiagnosed heart condition, which meant she would be unlikely to survive “a toxic challenge such as nicotine ingestion”.
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