Christopher Mhlengwa Zikode

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Christopher Zikode
Born
Christopher Mhlengwa Zikode

1975 (age 4748)
Other names Donnybrook Serial Killer
Criminal penalty140 years (5 life sentences)
Details
Victims18
Span of crimes
1994–1995
CountrySouth Africa
State(s) KwaZulu-Natal
Date apprehended
29 September 1995

Christopher Mhlengwa Zikode (born 1975) is a South African rapist and serial killer who was convicted in 1995 on eight [1] counts of murder, five counts of rape, five counts of attempted murder, and two counts of indecent assault. Zikode is, however, considered responsible for at least 18 murders and 11 attempted murders. [2]

Contents

Criminal career

Zikode terrorised the small, rural South African town of Donnybrook, KwaZulu-Natal. Over the course of two years, Zikode attacked households as well as single women traversing rural terrain. His typical modus operandi was to force entry into a household and shoot all male members of the family. He would then take the remaining woman/women into nearby fields or plantations and rape them repeatedly, on occasion for more than five hours. [2] Uncooperative victims would be shot before he proceeded to commit necrophilia.

Zikode was eventually arrested on 29 September 1995. He was sentenced on 7 January 1997 to 140 years in prison. Zikode had been arrested for the first time in July 1995 for the attempted murder of Beauty Zulu. While on bail, he is known to have committed further crimes including one count of murder and two counts of attempted murder. [2]

Zikode was convicted with the assistance of South African psychologist and criminal profiler Micki Pistorius.

See also

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References